Aethere Lapsum
by i88
Summary: Law loses most of his crew at Amazon Lily, but acquires a nurse in the Calm Belt. As the seas get rougher and the water gets darker, Law realizes he's losing himself to the New World as he purues his dream of becoming a War Lord. Akane is already lost at sea until she finds her sister once again, but her motives are as foreign and mysterious as the New World itself. Law/OC
1. I: Dedisset

Kousa Akane's lungs burned as she ran blindly through the milky fog her captain created. She clenched onto her pistol as tightly as she was holding onto the treasure in her other hand. The fog swirled around her limbs as she sprinted forward and a bullet whizzed past her head, nearly taking off her ear before diving back into the fog in a smoky splash. The swords clashing and gunshots rang around her while the bag of gold thumped heavily on her back. The Cutthroat Pirates went onto the island searching for treasure, assuming it was deserted until they came upon another crew where it naturally escalated into a blood bath.

Akane tripped over a dead body, not knowing if it was from her crew or another and tumbled forward. The long grass of a hill leading down to the beach extended her fall and once she rolled onto the beach, Akane realized the fog was gone. She slowly rose and looked over the tall, green blades of grass where the milky fog could no longer impair her vision. Akane was able to see that her captain and ship were gone and she was alone on a deserted island with nothing but the company of the dead pirates.

~,'~

The next day on the other side of the island, Captain Trafalgar Law walked through the jungle with his crew, the Heart Pirates, trailing behind him; his first mate Bepo held his nodachi in his great white paws, Jean Bart navigated with an old map, and Penguin and Shachi were combing the beach for supplies. The island was uninhabited due to its small size and lack of game, but the fruit trees and prospect of treasure were enticing enough for the Heart Pirates to pay a visit.

"Jean, are we close to the treasure?" Law asked, looking over at Jean Bart.

"The map says it should be in the center of the island in a tomb of Captain Antonia," Jean said, glancing down at the yellowed paper they acquired through a black market trade.

Law nodded once and continued to make his way through the lush green jungle. The wind stirred the white spotted fur on his hat, but outside of the various bird caws it was peaceful which Law was quick to embrace. The captain had lost nearly all of his crew to the ladies of Amazon Lily when they foolishly set foot on the island against his wishes and were killed by the women they sought out; Law was willing to start with a clean slate before heading for the New World. His current problem was he needed to first find another doctor.

His skills were unmatched, but after one instance when he nearly had to operate on himself, Law realized it would be more beneficial if there was at least one other doctor. Also, an assistant outside of a squeamish Bepo would be nice though his first mate was helpful.

"It looks like someone beat us to it, Captain," Bepo said, pointing up ahead.

The moss covered mausoleum was ransacked, the large stone covering the tomb rolled to the side and the skeleton of the dead captain strewn about the soft jungle floor. Law crouched down and picked up the skull of the pirate captain, the hallow sockets staring into his dark rimmed eyes before he stood back up.

"I guess we can just gather supplies and go back to-"

A gunshot shattered the silence and the shouting that followed it would not let the peace settle again. Law took his weapon from the white bear and stormed through the jungle, listening for the source of the commotion. His feet thundered hard on the soft earth as he sliced through the thicket. Law felt the dirt mix with the soft yellow sand and knew he had to be close to the shore on the other side of the small island. When he finally came out to the other side, he was taken back for a moment at what he saw: a mass grave of pirates.

Law carefully stepped over the various limbs, some attached and some not, as he saw over the hill down on the beach Penguin and Shachi chasing after a woman with long dark hair; what was stranger was both Shachi and the woman were limping, but the woman more so. Law continued to make his way toward them as the three continued to shout.

"Give us that treasure, you crazy zombie!" Penguin said, nearly stumbling with the loose footing of the sand.

"Yeah!" Shachi chimed, his bleeding foot stinging as sand got into the wound.

"I'm not a zombie!" the woman said running further down the beach.

Law didn't move to help his crew yet, he was still scrutinizing the pirate Shachi and Penguin were chasing. Her dark complexion didn't give him any clues, but the tattoo on her left breast, revealed by her "uniform" of white bikini top and shorts, looked like a Jolly Roger of the Cutthroat pirates. Any pirates that have survived the Grand Line all the way into the New World knew recognized their Jolly Roger or ship; if not, they'd risk being attacked by the large, dangerous crew.

The Cutthroat Pirates were led by Captain "Cutthroat" Mama, a large woman in her forties with kind brown eyes and bloody palm prints on her white skirt where she wiped her swords after each battle. She was _not_ a War Lord or acknowledged her status of Supernova, despite her cruel reputation; Mama refused to be ranked by the World Government nor other pirates. Instead, the Cutthroat Pirates were neither the pawns nor the players, but they were never opposed to clearing the board.

"Oh sure: _you're_ not a zombie and _we're_ not pirates," Penguin retorted while he and Shachi finally cornered her and she began backing up with each step they took toward her.

"Yeah, you look half dead to begin with so you might as well hand over the treasure," Shachi added, pointing to the heavy treasure that seemed to be taking a toll on the woman.

She continued to back up until she nearly jumped when the icy sea water grabbed at her ankles. She pulled out the pistols from her hips and dropped the treasure behind her, cocking the revolvers at the two pirates.

"Take another step toward me and I won't aim for your feet," dark eyed woman stated coldly. Her natural killer instinct pumped adrenaline through her blood stream as she heard a sword unsheathe and looked past them to see a man in a yellow hoodie and white spotted fur hat begin to stalk towards them with a bear and a large muscular man behind him.

Without hesitation, she fired into Penguin's and Shachi's feet and rushed past them as Law began sprinting toward her.

"_Room_," he said, casting out his hand and creating a blue dome around them.

"_Shambl_-"Just as Law raised his nodachi, she shot a bullet into his shoulder causing his swing to go through the barrels of her pistols rather than her torso.

The woman looked at her useless revolvers and back at Law, "Surgeon of Death", who suddenly had the advantage. He smiled lazily at her and pointed the tip of his nodachi at her tattoo, barely tracing the Jolly Rodger.

"Didn't 'Mama' ever teach you how to play nice?" he asked, the gleam in his eyes almost as bright as the one the sun casted on his sword.

"No, but she did teach me how to fight dirty," she said and whipped up the sand and chucked the guns at Law. He dodged them easily, but the distraction was all she needed for her to sneak behind him and put her cold hands on his neck.

"_Muscu_," she whispered, the phrase coming out as a puff of air on his neck. The effects of her Devil Fruit shattered his "Room" and Law dropped his nodachi into the golden sand. The color drained from his face as quickly as his strength did, bringing him to his knees. His breathing was ragged as he looked up at her who was now barely smiling.

"I have a talent for bringing men to their knees," she said saucily, beginning to walk back towards the treasure, her ankles in the water.

"I'm more talented with women on their backs," he countered and using his regained strength, used his shoulder to shove her backwards into the shallow sea water. It would have been enough to weaken her, but Law threw the bag of treasure onto her stomach, planting his foot on it firmly.

The woman struggled to keep her head above water, gaping like a fish and gasping for air. This stopped when Law leaned forward and grabbed her roughly by the hair and stated," My crew and I will take the treasure and let you live or the treasure can keep you company in your grave. The choice is yours, Miss."

Despite how close he had brought their faces, the woman's black coffee eyes glared into his stormy gray ones, searching for a compromise. Law glanced at the hand that rested on the treasure and saw there was a caduceus covering the top of it. He looked back at her face and slowly began registering who she was. She saw the pieces click in his head as a plan began forming; she narrowed her eyes to try to see past his mask of sudden politeness.

"You're the 'Noir Nurse' Akane, first tier of the Cutthroat Pirates, am I correct?" he asked, beginning to loosen his grip on her hair.

"Yes, what's it to you?"

"Well, if you agree to my proposal, you can have a third of the treasure," he said, counting off on his tattooed hand, "your life, and a one way ticket off of this island."

Akane would starve to death if she gave him the treasure or she would drown and he would take the treasure anyway; Law's compromise seemed like the only way she would get out alive with her captain missing.

"Go on," she said and with that Law hoisted the treasure off of her torso and threw it in the sand behind him, Shachi and Penguin carrying back to the submarine before she objected.

"You can have all of this if you agree to be my assistant doctor," he said, outstretching a hand to help her up.

Akane looked at the fingers marked "DEATH" and back up at him. The deal was too perfect, but he knew that too. He must have counted the scars on her body and the skull tattoo with the slit throat grinning up at him, but Trafalgar Law knew that this was an offer she couldn't refuse.

Law smiled lazily when she took his hand said firmly, "Deal."


	2. II: Insomnia

In the three days Akane had been a part of the Heart Pirates she had developed insomnia. After a restless night of sleeping gold, she would have thought that sleep would come easier when she was in a an actual bed…but maybe she lost sleep when she realized she would have to sleep in the crew's quarters in an _all male crew_. They were nice enough, the ones called Shachi and Penguin showering her in compliments, but it would take some getting used to.

She had started making rounds about the submarine in an effort to at least get acquainted with her new home and to try to wear herself out. She had developed many theories of her insomnia and her second theory was she missed the way the waves rocking the floor beneath her. It reminded her of a rocking chair from when she was little and it was comforting to always feel it lull her to sleep. Along with being in a submarine, she could never tell if it was day or night; when they were beneath the waves, the only lights were the pale blue lights that lined the floors of the steel hallways.

Her final theory was that maybe she felt that she was a traitor: she left her crew in a mass grave, gave treasure to another captain, and then joined another crew in less than a week, but she couldn't die now until she found her sister Kira. Kira had left with a pirate captain a year ago and Akane had been trying to find her, but always seemed to just miss her. All these possibilities swirled around in her head when a voice cut off the train of thought.

"Do you think there will ever be a cure for insomnia, Miss Akane?" her new captain asked, leaning in the doorway of the medical bay. Akane didn't realize she had wandered all the way to the third floor.

"You'd think there would be with the amount of medical experts afflicted by it," she said and made her way over to him.

He smirked as he got a better look at her pajamas. "I see you're already making yourself at home."

Her clothing was so dirty and sandy from the beach that Akane had to wash them, but being those were her only belongings, she found a clean black tee shirt and boxer shorts on the clothes line and claimed them; she later found them to be Law's.

"Actually at home I walk around naked," she retorted, earning a smirk from him.

She walked underneath his arm that supported him on the door frame and went to go stand by his desk, picking up the book he was reading. Law followed behind her and sat in the large leather chair behind his desk, propping his feet up and watching her leaf through his book. He glanced at her bruised legs as he passed by.

"You should sit on the desk to rest your leg," Law suggested, and she looked up from the text; she took a small spot on the edge of the wooden desk before returning to reading. They settled into a comfortable silence.

"_The Field Guide to Devil Fruit_," Law said, tapping the cover of the book with his boot," I'm trying to better acquaint myself with the different Devil Fruit in case I encounter a particularly dangerous user." Akane nodded and kept flipping through the pages, but found one folded page with a fruit circled and underlined.

"Am I a 'particularly dangerous user', Doctor?"she asked, showing him the page with the name _Corp Corp Fruit_.

His laid back smile never faltered as took the book from her. "You have a very interesting power, Nurse."

"Is interesting another way for saying not entirely useful?" she asked, crossing her legs and turning fully to face him.

"I wouldn't say that; you caught me off guard, didn't you?" he asked, thinking to their fight.

Akane shrugged and replied," I think I'm a better shot than I am at hand to hand combat." He saw a gun rest in a black holster hanging on her hip.

Law nodded and took the book back from her. "I cannot deny the skills of your hands: how long were you a nurse for the Cutthroat Pirates?"

"I was only there for a year, I've been a nurse for longer... a doctor, actually," she said, correcting herself as her eyes trailed around the contents of his desk. He wasn't personal: no photos, portraits, or any objects that strayed from medical texts or papers; only the hallow eyes of a skull glaring out the door from the corner of his desk strayed from the mess of papers.

"If you're a doctor why are you known as the 'Noir Nurse'?" he asked.

"Have you seen my wanted poster?" Akane asked as she picked up the skull to examine it.

"I can't say that I have; I recognized you mostly from your tattoos," he admitted, watching the muscles move beneath her tanned skin to rotate the skull in her hands and the veins revealed themselves occasionally with each abstract movement.

She put the skull back on his desk, two black holes staring back into Law's eyes. "If you find one, you'll see what I mean; of course, that is _if _you find one."

"Why wouldn't I be able to find your wanted poster? You were in the first tier of one of the most notorious crews on this side of the ocean; I'm sure you're quite popular," he slyly remarked, smirking at her as he flicked his eyes to her barely visible tattoo and back up to her face.

"The key word is I _was_ once a part of that crew...but I heard through my transponder snail that when the Marines discovered the mass grave they assumed that was the end of the Cutthroat Pirates excluding Mama. I tried to bury most of the first tier in the jungle so no one could cash in on their bounties," Akane said, thinking of the island she slept in. "Wait, how did you know about the tier ranking?"

Law shrugged the black shoulders of his hoodie while searching her face for understanding. "It's not like it's a secret, is it? It's on all the Cutthroats' wanted posters; it always said beneath the bounty what tier that pirate was in, but it never clarified how the ranking system worked if you wanted to elaborate."

"Since there was forty nine of us, the crew were broken up into seven tiers ranging from most useful to least useful. First tier, which I was in, is with the captain to give you a perspective," Akane explained.

"Was there any reason for organizing a crew that way?" Law asked, thinking to his own. He couldn't imagine ranking them on their skill since every member of his crew, despite their current small size, was equal in his eyes.

"Like you said, it was a way to distinguish who was worth more bounty wise and who was most important within the crew. For us, it was to show who was expendable," Akane replied, picking at her fingernails as she explained. "The seventh tier is the lowest and are the ones that get their hands dirty; this is either stealing things when we don't have the money or getting us free drinks and hotel rooms."

Law swung his legs off his desk to place them on the floor before clasping his tattooed hands and resting his chin on them, his gray eyes looking up at where she was perched. "And how exactly would someone acquire those without stealing them?"

Her dark eyes slid sideways to look at his smiling face, the question asked so coyly when he obviously knew the answer.

"Doctor, if you knew some of the things I or anyone has done under Mama's command, I doubt you'd let me even come within 100 yards of your crew, let alone ask me to join," Akane admitted, slipping her long black hair behind her ear.

He raised an eyebrow, his smile going from laid back to nearly devilish as he asked," That sounds like a challenge, Miss Akane; now everything _I_ ask you to do will have to pale in comparison to your previous captain."

Akane laughed harshly, the sound cushioned by the tile floors of the white medical bay, the sound so loud and sudden it almost scared her. She looked back at her captain who wasn't surprised or confused, but was analyzing her with cool calculation.

"Sorry, Captain, I didn't laugh at you," Akane replied, clearing her throat and holding up her hands in peace," it's just that we weren't called the Cutthroat Pirates for walking along the shores looking for seashells."

"Better change my strategy then," Law said dryly and the pair both looked at the doorway when he heard a knock on the wall. In the doorway, Penguin and Shachi stood there as if they were waiting patiently for a break in the conversation. Law rose from his desk and stood to the side of it, his hand resting on the edge.

"Sorry to interrupt, Captain, but Jean wanted to let you know we're about thirty miles away from Aestus Island," Penguin said.

"You weren't interrupting; Miss Akane and I were just talking about seashells," he said, nodding his white spotted hat at the woman sitting beside him. He looked over at Shachi and asked," Shachi, did you need something as well?"

"Yeah, actually I need to borrow Akane so we can make breakfast," Shachi said, adjusting the bill of his hat.

"Penguin: on your way back to the control room ask Jean approximately how long until we're at Aestus Island and how long we'll be staying there. Also, count our inventory and give me a report for the next island," Law commanded and Penguin nodded before heading down the hall to climb back up the stairs. Law then looked between Shachi and Akane. "You two are going to make breakfast and then you will all receive further instruction from there."

"What are you going to do, Doctor?" Akane asked.

Law picked up his nodachi from the corner of the room and said as he began walking out the door," I am going to find Bepo and we are going to come up with an plan for the day."

After he left Shachi and Akane, Akane hopped down from the desk and went toward the doorway asking," So which way is it to the kitchen again?"

"It's on the first floor next to the control room," Shachi said and moved out of the way of the door frame and began walking down the hall and up the stairs, Akane following close behind.

She noticed the way he slightly hobbled. "I'm sorry for shooting you in the foot..._twice_."

Shachi just waved his hand dismissively and replied," Don't worry about it; I _should_ be the sorry one: I called you a zombie."

They continued to walk down the metal hallways in silence before they eventually made it to the kitchen. The kitchen, like the rest of the submarine, was organized and sterile with everything in an almost obsessive compulsive order. Akane began rooting through the fridge to find it nearly bare, except for apples, some green bananas, and spoiled milk.

"You have no meat, but enough apples to feed an army. Do we have anything else?" she asked, turning to Shachi who was pulling out half empty flour and sugar containers out of the cabinets.

"It looks like that's it aside from all the cooking stuff. The apples are from when Bepo had to get the food and blew all our money on fish and apples. The fish we went through pretty fast so we just have half the orchard to feast on for now I guess," Shachi explained, taking one out and biting into the red skin.

Akane sighed and took out a bunch, carrying them in an embrace before dumping them in the sink to wash them. Shachi drifted to her side, still eating his apple and asked," So wud do oo wad ee to do?"

"Cut up the apples into cubes," Akane said, taking the apple from his hand and throwing it into the trash to her left. Shachi huffed before taking a knife and beginning to cut the cleaned apples. The continued this process in silence and while Shachi was still cutting, Akane fetched a pot and filled it with water before setting it on the stove.

"So, uh, how do you like being a Heart Pirate, Akane?" Shachi asked to break the silence, watching his new crew mate roll the cubes in sugar before popping them into the pot.

. Akane paused for a second, thinking about the question. "It's different."

"I'm sure it'd have to be different with you being from an _all_ _female_ _crew_," Shachi sighed dreamily, leaning on the counter," what was your crew like?"

"They were...loud and good at fighting," Akane decided, not knowing nearly anyone on her previous crew well enough besides Mama to give a fair description.

Shachi nodded and cleared his throat, trying to prevent silence from settling again. "Well that's not too different from us; I don't mean to brag, but we're pretty good at fighting too, but what did you do for fun?"

"Fun?"

"Yeah, like when you get to an island and you just go out drinking?" Shachi suggested, turning to look at her fully as she stirred the apples.

Akane shrugged and stirred the apples. "I think my crew did that too when we got on an island. I don't know that well because since I was the only doctor on board and we got into fights a lot I had my work cut out for me; sometimes people would bring me food or rum from whatever pub they were at though."

"Well, I guess that must have been... exciting," he speculated.

"I know, I know: I sound like a really boring person, but I've never been one to go out in party, not even when I was teenager."

"I get what you mean; I didn't start going out until I joined the Heart Pirates. I was too busy taking care of my sisters growing up," Shachi said, taking the pot and helping divide the servings into bowls.

Akane took the bowls from him and followed him out into the dining room. "That sounds familiar; were you the oldest as well?"

"Oh yeah: I was the oldest out of five _and _the only guy around since my dad was an ice fisher and was gone most of the time," Shachi said nodding as he placed bowls at the empty places. Akane couldn't help but notice the chairs that were stacked in the corner of the room as if there had been more people that were supposed to sit with them.

"Ice fishing?" Akane asked, looking at Shachi blankly.

"What else are you supposed to do when you live in the North Blue?" Shachi countered and rang the bell that was outside the dining room archway leading into the hallway. After ten minutes, the Heart Pirates were seated and conversing with each other. Akane found the only seat available was to Law's left while Bepo flanked his right at the head of the long wooden table.

"According to Jean," Law said, breaking his crew out of their conversations and nodding at the large man sitting next to Bepo," we'll be arriving in Aestus in an hour. This is an island with a Marine base so we won't be staying for long; also since it's a Marine base, walk in pairs always to avoid being captured. Shachi and Penguin will get food, Jean and Bepo will stay to watch the sub, and Akane and I will get medical supplies. Any questions?"

"Captain," Akane asked, Law turning to face her fully," if we are confronted, do we shoot on sight?"

Law simply smiled and leaned back in his chair and the crew resumed their dining.


	3. III: Misertus

"We're going to need gauze, anesthesia, pure alcohol, and cotton balls according to Penguin's inventory," Akane recited to Law as they walked around the busy market of Aestus Island, the Marine base looming over the city.

"We're out of morphine too," Law said, his nodachi on his shoulder as they weaved in and around the passersby's.

"Do you use medication often? I just like grinding herbs in a mortar with a pestle; it usually does the trick," she said, looking up at his tanned face that was shaded with his fur hat.

Law shrugged, still looking ahead. "I wasn't taught how to use herbs since I began training in the North Blue where there's only snow and injured seals to practice on."

"Then we should get witch hazel so I can show you how," Akane suggested and he nodded thoughtfully. They continued to walk briskly, Akane slightly struggling to keep up.

They settled into a steady pace and Law noticed his companion was looking around constantly like a deer searching for its predator.

"What are you looking at?" he asked, paranoia prickling at the back of his neck.

"I'm trying to look for wanted posters, but I don't see any," she said, looking back ahead of her.

"Why does it matter? Are you really that concerned about being captured?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at the thought of her worrying when he thought she fought like a hellcat.

Akane shook her head no as she said," No, but when I was with Mama our bounties were so high that bounty hunters would come after us all the time. They weren't really a _threat_, they were just annoying."

Law smiled and shook his head. Only a true pirate would classify bounty hunters or Marines as "annoying". His yellow Jolly Rodger almost glowed on her chest where the sun hit the boiler suit. She figured it would be inappropriate to strut about in public in a man's boxers and shirt so she changed into her complimentary boiler suit and boots, with a borrowed gun hanging in the black holster on her hip.

It was hot for the island sun, but she couldn't complain since it was a way to brand herself with the Heart Pirates without a tattoo. She thought of her Cutthroat Jolly Rodger resting beneath the grinning Heart Pirates one and she scratched at it absentmindedly, falling behind Law and watching his yellow back to try not to get lost.

Akane could always tattoo over it, but it felt _wrong_ without knowing if Mama was dead or alive or even if any of her crew mates possibly survived. Even if she did go through with it, that wouldn't be the method the Cutthroat Pirates did to remove their tattoos. If anyone would want out of the crew, there was no stopping them; Mama would even remove their tattoos for them...with a _shot_ _straight through the heart_. Mama had purposefully made their tattoos on their breasts as if saying "your heart belongs to Mama".

"Akane," Law said, calling her out of her thoughts," do you have the list?"

She nodded and fished it out of the pocket of her boiler suit and handed it to Law's outstretched hand before following him into the pharmacy. She was hit with the aroma of spices and herbs as the bell above the door chimed, making their presence known. An elderly woman looked up from the book she was reading and smiled politely at them even though it was obvious they were pirates.

"Can I help you two today?" she asked and Law strolled over, resting his nodachi against the counter and setting the list in front of her.

"Yes, we were hoping to purchase these from your establishment," Law said, smiling at the store keeper.

She glanced at the list and nodded, smiling back and obviously charmed by the young, handsome pirate. "Of course, I'll be right back." She disappeared behind the curtain and began rustling around.

Law turned back to Akane who was looking at him with her eyebrow arched before looking at the herbs lining the shelves. He walked over and browsed the shelves with her before asking casually," Is there a problem, Miss Akane?"

She shrugged her shoulders, picking up a yellow jar of witch hazel. "I didn't know how charming a pirate could be."

He took the jar from her hands, inspecting it while saying," You only get the welcome mat when you _don't_ try to kill the captain."

Akane smiled and admitted," Fair enough."

Law returned it and tapped the jar with a slender finger, asking," What exactly is witch hazel used for?"

"Once you grind it into a paste it can be used for bruises," Akane said, picking up a stone mortar and pestle. She glanced at the marked price and said," That's pretty good for one of these. The one I had back on the _Bloody Mary_ was three times as much."

"How come? Is it really that difficult to make a bowl and a stick?" he asked, looking around for more herbs.

"When it's made out of seastone it is. I know seastone is _bad_ for us, so to speak, but it's kind of pretty," she mused, setting the mortar and pestle on the counter.

"I've never heard a Devil Fruit user describe seastone as _'pretty'_, but it could be as long as it's not around your wrists," Law said, placing a jar of sage next to the witch hazel.

"You have a point there, Doctor. You'd think with enough funding they could make the cuffs bigger, but maybe I just have big wrists," Akane said, drifting over to his side to look at a blood flower plant.

"What would you use that for?"

"You eat it and it makes you throw up. It's useful if you ate something poisonous, but I think it's a nice decoration too," she said, holding up the pot to Law's face to allow him to smell its sweet scent.

"I'm beginning to suspect your medical bay looked more like a jungle," he said, watching as she set it on the counter as well and also seeing she snuck three other plants on the counter as well. "Are you going to dig up a palm tree too while you're at it? Where are you going to put all of these plants in a submarine, Miss Akane?"

"We passed a store that sells artificial light bulbs for green houses a couple blocks down and it could spruce the place up," Akane defended, leaning on the counter.

"_My_ medical bay is fine the way it is," Law said, crossing his arms.

"It feels like an asylum and at least the plants will cover up the smell of blood in _our _medical bay," she said as the old woman returned with their items and saw the cluttered counter and smiled.

"Wow, you are quite the doctor, sir! Is this all?"

Law glanced sideways at Akane. "Yes, and we'll have someone come by and pick it up later if that's all right."

Akane smiled triumphantly as he paid and they began walking out of the store. The foot traffic had died down a little as they headed to the hardware store to get the light bulbs.

"You'll see how useful the plants will be," she said and he glanced at her and nodded once to show he was listening, though his mind was somewhere else. "Sometimes patching someone up isn't enough to heal them; sometimes you have to go back to the _roots_ of medicine."

A small smile settled on his face. "I'd stick to your day job, Miss Akane."

"Tough crowd," she said jestingly. They settled into their usual silence as they maneuvered in and out of the passing people, Akane falling behind her captain again and allowing him to lead them. For someone known as the "Surgeon of Death", she had begun to suspect that was only to his opponents.

Sure, she had fought him and he held her under water, not hesitating to drown her, but his crew nearly worshiped him. Everything he said went without question, a testament to their loyalty, and even Akane followed him blindly.

Before she became a pirate, she didn't think of herself as the type to be relying on someone all the time, but that's who she was at the end of the day. She would do anything to get what she wanted and wouldn't listen to anything that distracted her from her goals. Mama always affectionately called her a "deaf lamb" because she would question everyone but her captain, her shepherd.

A gloved hand clapped over her mouth from behind her and pulled Akane into an alley like a tidal wave, grabbing at her white boiler suit for leverage as she struggled. Once she was pinned against the clay wall, she saw there were two people with bandanas covering their faces and wearing long clothes despite the heat. Akane felt the weight of the pistol leave her holster and felt it now pressed against her temple.

"Oh wow, you actually got her away from Trafalgar?" the one in the red bandana asked the green bandana who had his hand over her mouth.

"It wasn't that hard; I just had to trail her for nearly an hour," Green replied. Akane sunk her teeth into the hand covering her mouth and sprinted toward the market, but her escape was thwarted when Red lunged at her ankles, bringing her to the ground, and Green flipped her onto her back before sitting on her stomach.

"Get the hell off of me, pervert!" Akane said, wiggling around on the dirt road since Red sat on her legs. She tried to reach up and grab the Green's neck that was on top of her, but his knees pinned her arms to the ground. Akane's struggles increased tenfold when he pulled a knife out of his pocket.

"Quit squirming, I just have to see something," he said reassuringly, like a parent checking a child's skinned knee. He unzipped the boiler suit down the front and took the knife and cut open the black shirt underneath, revealing her white bikini top and, more importantly, her tattoo.

"Ha! I told you it was her!" Green exclaimed, turning to grin at Red. He looked back down at Akane who's eyes were as large as saucers with confusion and fear. "We have the last crew member of the Cutthroat Pirates. Imagine what a beaut of a belli the 'Noir Nurse' will fetch with the Marines. Hell, she could be worth more than her current captain."

"I doubt it."

A shadow blocked the light that was coming in through the alley and Green and Red were frozen in terror as Law unsheathed his nodachi and began coming toward them, his hand marked DEATH casted out in front of him. Akane used the distraction to head butt Green and crawled away, pressing herself against the clay wall, the blue dome illuminating the small alley.

"_Shambles_." Law swung his nodachi cleanly through the bounty hunters bodies, the blade of his weapon coming inches away from Akane's neck while she pressed her cheek against the wall. The bounty hunters screamed as their limbs rotated through the air, a part of Law's macabre juggling act.

"What should I do today, Miss Akane?" Akane looked up to see Law wasn't looking at her, but was genuinely smiling as he watched the men swirled around. "Should I put their feet where their hands should be? Their eyes in their ears?"

Akane shrugged and said," I would say put their heads up their asses, but keep the torsos if you can."

"As you wish," he said and his hands stirred the air until finally he was satisfied with his latest creation: Red had his hands on top of his head like two pig tails while his feet were on the bottom and Green's feet were sticking out of his ears and his fingers made spider like legs.

"Let's get out of here, these people are crazy!" Red yellowed and started hopping away franticalley, with Green trailing behind him.

"What? I can't hear you, could you speak up?" Green shouted, the pair continuing to shout at each other as they left the alley.

"His mouth was what got him into trouble in the first place; maybe I should have put his foot in his mouth," Law commented absentmindedly.

He looked over and saw Akane rooting through one of the torso's pockets, climbing on top of it since it was flopping around like a fish. Law sheathed his nodachi and crouched beside her. She emptied the pockets onto the dirt road haphazardly, searching for something.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"I don't know yet, I need to see if they have...got it," Akane said holding up a large poster. She unrolled it on the ground and began to root through the man's wallet. Law took Akane's wanted poster in his hands to inspect it further, laughing as he further inspected it.

Akane was right about saying it was something: she stared at the camera with her pistols in hand and blood across her face, her long hair whipping behind her. The only thing that Law couldn't help but smirk at was her ridiculous nurse outfit, a short sleeved white dress barely reaching her mid-thigh and was tight enough to cut off circulation.

Akane caught him smirking and said," My first poster was better: I was in my bikini and shorts and there was a sunset behind me. The only reason they changed the first tier's posters were because none of the male pirates would take us out; they replaced it with this one; I don't like it because it looked like I just killed my pimp."

"You would fetch a nice amount if you were turned in, Miss Akane," he said looking at her bounty of a whopping 295,000,000 beli. Akane got off the torso and looked over Law's shoulder at her poster.

"Huh," she said as she walked over to the other wiggling torso halfway down the alley," I thought they would have raised it given the circumstances."

"What was your captain's bounty?" Law asked, rising as he folded the poster and slipped it into the pocket of his hoodie. Akane held a Baby Den Den Mushi in her palm as she walked away from the torso.

"777,000,000 beli," she answered not looking up from the little pink snail. The snail blinked slowly as it looked up at Law, taking in his perplexed expression.

He had known of the Cutthroat Pirate's infamous reputation, but couldn't begin to fathom the depth and extent of their crimes against the World Government if that was their captain's bounty. He glanced at her tattoo that was now revealed because of his torn shirt.

"And you said she _wasn't _a War Lord?" Law asked, eyes slightly narrowing skeptically.

"She wanted nothing to do with anyone beside her crew; that's why she would order us to shoot down any ship within a hundred yards," Akane said, sliding the transponder snail in her pocket. She walked further down the alley where her gun had skidded during the struggle.

"Sounds lonely," he said, tucking one of his hands in his pocket while the other held his nodachi. while she took out the magazine and counted the bullets.

"It kind of was," she said, walking over calmly to Green and shooting him in the chest before walking back over to Red and doing the same, shots echoing in the clay walls of the alley and ringing painfully in both Law and Akane's ears. The blood splattered against her neck and chest, looking eerily like the wanted poster in Law's pocket. "But you learn to be lonely."

She was about to walk back out into the street, but Law stopped her with his extended nodachi. Akane looked up with him about to ask him what was wrong when he zipped up her boiler suit and took a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe the excess blood off of her neck.

"Hearing gunshots and seeing a woman walking out of an alley covered in blood isn't exactly subtle," he said while he rubbed her neck.

"And decapitated heads screaming bloody murder are?" she challenged, raising an eyebrow at her captain while tucked the bloody cloth back into his pocket.

"I just wanted them to suffer before someone else killed them; for a former Cutthroat Pirate, you do have a _compassionate_ side," he said with a wide smirk, strolling out of the alley with his slightly bewildered nurse following him, the torsos of bounty hunters the only evidence of their detour.


	4. IV: Sericum

AN: Happy Fourth of July! Go America! Anyway, thank you to all who have reviewed and favorited and followed, you make me feel warm and fuzzy. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!

"Hello, what can I do you for? Perhaps sharpen your sword?" the store keeper greeted, nodding at Law's nodachi. After the run in with the bounty hunters, the pair both thought Akane should update her weapons. The shop was filled wall to wall of weapons, ranging from swords to fire arms to battle axes.

Law stepped aside and to reveal Akane who had already began to look around at the various firearms. "She's the one you should be talking to."

The burly man laughed and said," Alright and what would the little lady like?"

"I want to see your flintlocks and pockets please," Akane said. The man reached below the counter and reappeared with an armful of wooden cases, laying them out neatly in front of her. He flipped the brass latches on two of the wooden cases and revealed two identical flintlocks encased in crushed velvet.

"These are Queen Anne flintlock pistols, very popular among women for their design and light weight," he said and Akane picked up one and began inspecting it, emptying the magazine of its single round and looking at the bullet too. She flipped it around her right hand before switching to the left.

"You're right about them being light, but they're _too _light for me. My last flintlocks both had revolving barrels; do you have any of those?" she asked putting them back in the cases before opening the two others that were the pocket pistols.

"I just so happen to have two left, but the Marines reserved them both-"

"I don't care, can I at least see them?" Akane said a bit more rudely than she intended and she ignored Law's raised eyebrow.

"Well aren't you feisty?" the store keeper said and placed the two flint locks back beneath the counter and disappeared up the stairs to go to the storage room.

"Watch your tongue, Miss Akane," Law warned, handing her a holster similar to the one hanging on her hip.

"He's just saying that so he can rack up the price on the pistols. The multi-barrel pistols are usually five hundred beli more than the regular flintlocks, but since not many people carry them shop keepers drive the price almost _two thousand_ _beli _higher," Akane explained defensively while she fastened the holster to hang off her left hip. " I'm sorry, I'm still used to Mama breathing down my neck and telling me that we should just rob him if we're going to be robbed blind."

"Regardless," Law said, sitting on a chest full of bullets," I think you will find it in your best interest to be civil to civilians while we're at a _Marine base_; if we _weren't_, I would have to agree with your former captain." The laid back smile returned as he leaned back against the wall with his nodachi on his lap.

"I would have expected Supernovas not to care about Marines and civilians; that Kidd guy just tears through cities like a hurricane," Akane said, leaning against the counter and watching Law's jaw clench at the mention of Kidd. "What? You have a rivalry with him because his bounty is higher or something?"

"That man is an _idiot_ and I can't _wait_ for the day I see him executed," Law stated and Akane could of sworn the room got colder as his steely eyes bore into hers."I'm a Supernova because I played by the book enough to get ahead, but broke enough rules to make it even farther. That _homicidal fool_ has a high bounty because he burns through entire villages to get what he wants like a _petulant child_."

"If we ever run into Mama, I think she'd like you," Akane said, smiling and slightly diffusing his simmering anger.

"If we run into her? I thought those bounty hunters said she was dead?" Law asked, tucking his hands into his hoody pocket, feeling her wanted poster.

Akane shook her head."They said I was the last _crew_ member, not the last _member_ of the Cutthroat Pirates; besides, do you honestly think that if Mama was dead or captured that it wouldn't make the papers or no one would be talking about it?"

"True," Law said and the store keeper came back with two black polished boxes containing the pistols.

"Here you are, last in stock," the large man announced. Akane opened the cases and put the guns in her holster before whipping them back out, her hands so quick they blurred in front of both men's vision.

"Do you have a shooting range I can practice on to see if these will do?" Akane asked.

"Well I do have some rabbits that get in my garden out back, you can try shooting them," he suggested and lead the pair outside.

Sure enough there were at least ten rabbits nibbling away at the lettuce plants or hopping around. The long rows of neat vegetables were over turned or full of teeth marks and rabbit holes and dung decorated the garden plot instead. Law leaned against the house and rested his eyes.

"I have to warn you, they are pretty fast-"

_Pop. pop. pop. pop. whir. click. pop. pop. pop. pop. whir. click. pop. pop. _

Akane blew off the smoke pistols and turned to the jaw slacken man and asked," I'll take them! How much?"

The man continued to stare at the dead rabbits, their pink entrails littering the green grass and the blood splattering the side of his white store and house.

"Can I get them for a thousand each?" Akane pressed, tempted to wave a hand in front of his face. The man seemed to be a thousand yards away, his expectations for the woman's shooting abilities shattered like the skulls of the rabbits that have plagued him for years.

Akane reached down the front of her shirt and got out a small velvet pouch filled with her third of the treasure and put it in the pocket of the man's apron. "I'm going to give you this and then I'm going to take these two pistols and a pocket pistol along with some ammo. Oh and the holsters too, okay?"

The store keeper looked at her for a long time before silently going back to the store and up the stairs to probably lie down.

"Sweet! I think we saved three thousand beli, Captain!" Akane said, beaming and Law opened his eyes, looking at her from beneath the brim of his fluffy hat, smirking.

He plucked his nodachi leaning against the wall beside him and walked back into the store. Akane followed behind and began picking out bullets and powder, tearing the velvet out of the pocket pistol box to place them in. She slipped the small pistol down the front of her shirt into the hidden holster in her bikini top and turned around to face her captain.

"Alright, where to next?" she asked and he smiled and shook his head before heading out the door with her trailing behind him. The street lamps were lit and the sunset's oranges and purples tore across the blue sky.

"We're going back to the ship and then we'll go to the next island," he said as they walked around the bustling streets, the night life starting up. Akane looked up at the town clock in the plaza that read six o'clock.

"We're only staying here for a day?" she asked, falling in step with Law.

"Is there anything else you need to do here?" he asked.

"Well I was thinking that maybe it'd be a nice thought if I didn't have to live in one pair of men's boxers for the rest of my life... not that I don't appreciate the sacrifice," she said, quickly adding the last part.

Law chuckled and waved his hand, as if brushing away the idea of being defensive as they continued to walk the dirt path leading to the beach, trees looming over them on either side. They made it to the shore where the Heart Pirates' yellow submarine was docked and yellow lights poured out of the portholes; Shachi and Penguin carried crates of food onto the sub.

"I'm going to help load the sub, but if you want to go shopping without me, I'd be happy to lend you Bepo," Law said, calling over the polar bear.

"Oh no, that's not nec-" Law held up a hand.

"If I wasn't there to intervene today, you would have been either dead or on the Marine's door step," he said.

"That's because they were prepared; did you see the way they had their skin covered? And I didn't have all of my guns," Akane explained as Bepo finally made his way over to them.

"Yes, Captain?" he asked, his black eyes looking down at Law. Akane tried not to pout as Law smiled coolly back at her.

"Bepo, escort Akane into town to run errands and also pick up our medical supplies," Law said and walked back to the sub to help carry crates. Akane had nothing against the bear; hell, she was pretty sure she's never had a conversation with him, but she enjoyed solitude and taking a stroll around the town seemed relaxing.

Akane huffed and began walking back toward the town. She heard heavy thumping footsteps behind her and turned around. "You don't have to come with me, Bepo."

Bepo shook his white, furry head no and said adamantly," No, Captain told me I had to come with you."

Akane saw around the bear that Law was giving them an odd look, holding a large wooden box. She started walking again to cool his suspicion and Bepo followed. "Alright, do you want to get the supplies or watch me shop for intimates?"

"Intimates?"

"Supplies first it is," she said and began walking the familiar route back to the pharmacy.

They walked in silence for a while and it wasn't until they were right in front of the store that Akane just had to ask," So how long have you and Captain known each other?"

"I've known him since I was a cub and he was only this tall," he replied, reaching his paw down to slightly below his round tummy.

"Wow, what was that like?" she asked, the polite conversation piquing her interest.

"Well, when we first met I hurt my paw and then Captain fixed it. Those were the good old days, except when he tried to dissect me," Bepo said, shuddering and causing Akane to laugh.

They headed into the pharmacy, the bell ringing loudly in Bepo's sensitive ears. Behind the counter was not the elderly woman, but a teenager that appeared to be her granddaughter.

"Hi, we're here to pick up supplies for a Mr. Trafalgar Law," Akane said and the girl popped her gum and left to go retrieve the plants and boxes. "I can't even imagine what the Captain had been like as a kid; did he have those bags under his eyes then too?"

Bepo was content sticking his nose in the different plants that he absent mindedly said," No, he got those after he came back from the Donquixote Pirates."

"Why was he running with them?" she asked incredulously.

Bepo looked back at her, and bowed his head. "Sorry, forget I said anything."

Akane was no stranger to secrets. Anyone who said secrets hurt people were both right and wrong; they hurt people only if they are revealed.

"What were we talking about?" Akane asked dumbly as the girl came back with all their supplies fit miraculously into one crate.

"About how...oh. I don't know," Bepo said, catching on. The pair headed out of the store and wandered into a lingerie shop where there was only cashier to keep them company. Bepo set the crate on the pink carpet and sat on it patiently.

"Hello, ma'am, can I help you find anything today?" the cashier asked, eyeing Bepo curiously.

"36C, 35, 22. I need at least five pairs, please," Akane quoted and the woman nodded and headed off to grab garments. Akane appreciated that she didn't ask what she wanted because Akane didn't care. She was in an all male crew so she didn't have to compete with them for the cutest panties; besides that, she hadn't shaved her legs in over a week so it wasn't as if she was expecting anyone to see them anyway.

"Why do you need special clothes? These are more expensive than what the rest of the crew gets," Bepo observed, holding up a pair of white silk underwear.

"They are more than welcome to get these, but it's not as _manly_, Bepo," Akane explained, paying for the lingerie with the remainder of her allowance.

"Why doesn't everyone where these? They're so soft!" Bepo said, rubbing his furry face against the underwear. Akane laughed and shook her head, holding the door open so he could take the crate through before heading back to the sub.

"I can take the crate down to the medical bay," Akane said, stepping onto the ramp and seeing Bepo set down the crate.

"Alright, I'll take your lingerie back to our bunk," Bepo said, taking the small bag and began walking down the hall.

"Hopefully I still have five pairs by the time I get back," Akane muttered, hoisting the crate in her arms and heading down to the third floor.

When she entered the medical bay, she saw it was empty. She dropped off the crate on top of Law's desk and began searching around for something to pry the top open with.

"I would have been impressed if you were able to pry it open with your bare hands like Jean can, but you're free to use a crow bar like the rest of us," Law said, putting the crow bar in her hand and setting a bag beside the supplies.

She pried it open with a loud _crack_ and the two medics began unloading the plants onto the desk, then the gauze and medication.

"Where does this all go?" she asked, motioning to the plants and pestle.

"I'd normally say outside, but I suppose on the shelf behind my desk will do too," he replied, chuckling as Akane huffed and knocked a plant into his side.

The bookshelf behind his desk was crammed with many novels and texts, but she took out the bookends and replaced them with the exotic, herbal plants and placed the mortar and pestle inside a drawer in his desk where she found extra surgical tools and gloves.

"The gauze can go inside the metal cabinet over there; I need to move the medicine and vaccines to a freezer down the hall," Law said, switching the books out of the bag with the bottles and vials of medicine. He exited the room and Akane continued to put things away.

There were three drawers on the large metal cabinet and Akane rifled through the top only to find rubbing alcohol and anesthesia. She tried the middle section and finally found the gauze and band aids. She wandered back to the desk and saw the crate was now empty and placed it on the floor when she saw a letter addressed to Law with an official Marine stamp on it.

"Find everything okay, Miss Akane?" Law asked as he threw the empty bag away in the waste basket.

"Yeah, it looks like everything's stowed away so I guess I'll head to bed." She had an almost brisk pace to her step, slightly ashamed that she was even considering going through her captain's things when he lightly grabbed her arm.

"You said earlier that Captain Mama would have liked me: why?" he asked, loosening his grip.

Akane thought to when they were in the weaponry and the pieces began to click together as she recalled that she never finished her statement.

She genuinely smiled as she said," She would have loved you because despite everything you don't act like a pirate."

Law looked at her, eyes slightly narrowed in puzzlement.

"That's a nice way to say you're not a complete asshole and you give a shit about your crew."

Law smiled as he let go of her arm and crossing his arms. "Not a _complete_ asshole?"

"You wanted to let two idiots live the rest of their lives without torsos," Akane answered shrugging, about to head off to bed when Law grabbed her arm again and pulled her back toward his desk.

"Speaking of that, you do realize that even with wearing a different uniform you're still easy to recognize which means you'll be needing to obscure your face," he said, reaching inside one of his desk drawers and pulling out a long, yellow scarf with black spots like the ones on his pants. He handed the folded scarf to her and she unfolded it and ran the soft fabric through her hands.

"So do you want me to wrap this around my face or what?" she asked.

"You'll figure something out; how was your outing with Bepo?" he asked plucking the letter addressed from the Marines and began tearing it open with a scalpel.

"It was interesting; did you know Bepo really likes silk?" Akane asked, trying to contain the laughter that was pooling in the back of her throat.

Law glanced up at her and smiled while shaking his head. "My mother had a silk robe my father bought her from some place he was hunting and he would spend hours just laying on it."

Akane laughed but quickly did a decrescendo when the laid back smile slid off his face, bringing a hand over his mouth to tap against his cheek as he continued to read the letter. He took his hat off his head and ran his hands through his messy raven hair.

"Captain, is there a problem?" she asked.

"I think it'd be best for the both of us if we tried to get some rest, Miss Akane," he said, rising from his desk and beginning to go to his quarters while Akane had no choice but to do the same.


	5. V: Sto

Akane walked up the metal stairs pondering what had shifted in her Captain when he was reading the letter; she could barely come up with a reason he would have something addressed to him from the Marines. She was almost tempted to ask, but thought against it.

Maybe she was too used to Harper, the second mate, going through Mama's mail and telling her its contents while she was patched up. Akane knew it wasn't her place to ask, but curiosity got her into more trouble than the Cutthroats did.

She wouldn't lose sleep over it though; she's already done that by just being on the sub and within her new crew, but she's slowly adjusted to the point of comfort. She passed by the portholes leading to the crew's quarters, the inky ocean swirling around the yellow submarine.

When Akane entered the quarters, it appeared to be empty; soft lights emitted from the lanterns hanging from the posts of the top bunks, but only one of them were occupied. She had heard from Shachi that the rest of the crew was either dead or living happily with some rogue residents on Amazon Lily. Considering what happened to her crew, she didn't find the empty beds and chairs eerie.

"So you do sleep, Akane," Jean Bart greeted from a large hammock that seems to have been built for him.

She grinned and shrugged. "I guess so, but I'm pretty sure the doctor told me to go to bed."

"Well being a doctor yourself you should know that walking around like a ghost throughout the night can't be good for your health," he said laughing.

She walked over to her and Bepo's bunk and saw on top of her "dresser", which was a large crate, her bikini top and shorts were neatly folded. She shrugged out of her boiler suit, leaving her in Law's torn shirt and boxers.

"Great," she said looking down at the boxers," I got blood on it."

"From what?"

"Bounty hunters. They thought they could make off with me like a treasure chest and then Captain stepped in and turned them into...something," she explained, climbing up to the top bunk and sitting on it.

"Well you must be a high price item being one of the remaining Cutthroats; speaking of which, do you have any idea where Mama has gone off to?" Jean asked, lying on his side and facing himself toward her.

Akane laid back and looked at the metal ceiling, counting the bolts. "Who knows, she has the _Bloody Mary_ and all the treasure, so hopefully she's fine. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know if you remember this, but I do recall seeing you once when I was visiting her," he said, looking for some recollection in her face as she looked over at him. "I wouldn't blame you if you didn't: it _was_ nearly five years ago."

"Back on Segre?" Akane asked, sitting up while resting back on her elbows.

Jean smiled and nodded saying," Yes, I remember Mama pointing you out, said you could bring people back from the dead if you wanted to."

Akane smiled broadly and asked," Is that before or after she told you 'that girl needs to put some meat on her bones or no man will want her'."

Jean laughed at her impression of her former captain. "That's pretty good, but you know she would kill you if she heard you making fun of her like that."

Akane shrugged and said," I don't imitate her to be spiteful; I've heard her say that to me so many times that I have her voice imbedded in my head, you know? She had a portrait of you in her quarters: how long have you known her?"

"I've known her since I was twenty years old, but we've always good friends."

"And occasional lovers?" Akane asked cocking an eyebrow.

Jean smiled and shook his head. "I knew you would have remembered me once."

"I think a lot of my crew members noticed a man sleeping over," Akane said laughing and Jean tossed one of his black tank tops lying on the ground at her.

"Speaking of sleepovers, you can have it," he said, rising and leaving his hammock swinging."I have to navigate at night so I sleep during the day most of the time. Good night, Akane."

"Good night!" she called, watching him leave.

"At this rate, I'll never have to go clothes shopping again if you people just keep throwing your clothes at me," Akane said, taking the ripped shirt off and throwing it to the ground and slipping the tank top over head before removing the boxers. The shirt was so big it fell past her knees and revealed her bra.

"Well, aren't you shy?" Penguin said, entering the room and taking off his boots as he sat on the lower bed of his and Shachi's bunk.

Akane shrugged and said," Hey, get used to it; I _lived _in a bikini for six years of my life. Do you have a knife or scissors? I was going to cut the straps and tie them tighter."

Penguin reached under his bed for a knife and he walked over and tossed it on her bed before returning back to his bed. "So, I see you're making yourself at home and you already had an encounter with bounty hunters. How'd that go?"

"I'd say I _would_ have had it under control if they weren't wearing gloves and my guns were ready," she said quietly while she sliced the straps and then tied them into tight, nautical knots.

"Your hand to hand combat is terrible," Penguin said, shrugging out of his boiler suit leaving him in a wife beater and boxers. "When we get to the next island, I could show you some moves... if you want."

"That'd be extremely helpful, I'm going to hold you to that, Penguin," she said, hopping down from the bunk to give him back the knife and then turned to climb back up as Shachi and Bepo walked in already in their "pajamas", Shachi's the same as Penguin's and Bepo's pajamas being his birthday suit.

"Hey, Jean said we were heading to Segre next. Do you know what's on it, Akane?" Shachi asked, climbing up to the top bunk and pulling the quilt back to slip beneath it.

Akane beamed. "What _don't _I know about it? I've been there so many times with the Cutthroats I have that island memorized."

"Why were your there so much?" Bepo asked, the bunk creaking beneath her as he got into bed as well.

"It's a resort and spa island where people just go to relax; it was the only part of Mama's territory since the Marines didn't protect it and she loved going there so much. It's lovely," Akane explained, leaning back into her bed and throwing the covers over herself.

"So is there like a bunch of girls in hot springs roaming about?" Penguin asked hopefully.

Akane laughed as she closed her eyes. "Yeah and there is a naked beach on the other side of the island or at least my old crew treated it as one."

"Yes!" Shachi and Penguin exclaimed before Shachi opened the lantern hanging on the post of his bunk and blew out the candle before Akane did the same, the room plunging into the darkness as everyone settled into bed.

"Are there girl bears?"

"Shut up, Bepo!"

"Sorry."

Two floors below his sleeping crew, Law stared out blankly at the glass wall of his quarters, the fur comforter beneath him occupying his hands as he ran his long fingers through it monotonously. His hat on his leather reading chair next to his nodachi and his boots kicked off somewhere near his sweatshirt. The dark ocean lurked around him, fish illuminated by the lights of the sub swam by occasionally, but the only thing stopping him from sleeping was himself.

He rarely needed more than four or five hours of sleep, but he needed something to do besides think about that letter. Law clamped a tattooed hand over his eyes and sighed heavily, swiping it down his tanned face

He had been rejected as a War Lord again. He had a connection in the Marines that was letting him know how close he was to accomplishing one of his goals and had told Law he needed to do something _bigger_ to get the World Government's attention. It was frustrating to think that he had mutilated and rearranged _thousands_ of people, pirates and Marines alike, but it still wasn't enough to give him War Lord Status.

When he removed his hand, he turned his head towards his medicine cabinet next to his chair. It was made of dark wood like the rest of his furniture and nearly touched the ceiling; it needed to with the quantity of its contents. Law had begun to dabble into concocting his own medicine nearly ten years ago and had been mastering it ever since. He had to be good at it considering how long he's been self medicating.

Law's jaw clenched.

Law was a proud man: he was proud of his crew, his submarine, his bounty, and his abilities, but he was ashamed of his reliance on sleep medication. It had recently started back up after three months of being cold turkey; years of popping pills to deal with being under Donflamingo's thumb was enough to nearly make him an addict, but sleep was fleeing him so much it was beginning to affect him. Some days he would catch the words nearly blurring off the pages of a book he was reading; his worst nightmare would be performing surgery while he was this sleep deprived.

He stared at the cabinet a while longer before turning on his side to face the opposite wall, seeing one of Akane's large plants on the night stand. He was curious to see how she made herbal medicine and other remedies, wanting to compare the results to his traditional medicine; Law was also curious to compare her surgical skills to his own as well. He hasn't seen her hold a scalpel yet, but the way she studied people like he did tipped him off to her knowledge of the human body.

While walking around Aestus, they ended up talking about anatomy throughout the day after Law took note of her staring hard at a couple of women shopping around. It wasn't a look of lust or envy at their beauty, but pure _amazement_ at their form.

_"I know it's weird, but ever since I became a doctor, I love people watching," she had said, nodding at the women. Law shifted a gray eye toward her as she continued to talk. "I mean, isn't it fascinating how we're all just a bunch of meat sacks with skin suits just walking around?"_

_ "Yes, very. I used to think that all the time when I was a kid too. I had a cut once and just watched it bleed and then heal before my eyes; I thought that was the most amazing thing I ever saw," Law said with a laid back smile._

_ "It was different for me: I remember my sister fell and broke her ankle and I got our neighbor who was a doctor. Watching him set an ankle was like magic, you know?" she said and Law nodded. They settled into a comfortable silence until Law spoke up again. _

_ "When you're in combat and you see an enemy get injured, do you ever go through the process of how _you_ would fix them?" Law asked and Akane smiled widely, finally finding someone to talk to about a doctor's odd habits. _

_ "Don't you love the smell of blood?" Akane asked and was further elated when he nodded and smiled further. _

_ "What about when your tools are cold before surgery?" _

_ "Oh I love that! I really love that moment before you put someone under that they think you're just going to start cutting them open: isn't that the funniest thing?" she asked, Law chuckling as he thought of when Shachi nearly went into cardiac arrest when Law began marking his chest with a marker. _

_ "Ah, so you do know the joys of surgery; with all your plants I would have pegged you for a medicine woman," Law said, smirking lightly when her eyes narrowed playfully. _

_ "Well Mr. "Surgeon of Death", we can't pick our path of surgery, okay? It just happens I like the natural route. Look over there," she said pointing to the women she was scrutinizing before. The swell of their breasts were hardly contained in their tight shirts. "Whoever did their plastic surgery did a bang up job."_

_ "How would you know that?" Law asked. _

_ "They're lopsided and the nose could have had an extra inch taken off of it," Akane said, using her finger to trace the form while Law's eyes followed it. _

_ Law nudged her in the side and shook his head, a smirk settling on his lips. "It seems you know a lot about plastic surgery."_

_ "Yeah, that's part of the reason I got in with the Cutthroats: I was a plastic surgeon on my island."_

_ "Did you practice on yourself first?"_

_She nudged him in the rib and began walking and he had no choice but to follow before leading them to the weaponry. _

A smile settled on his lips. When he turned on his back again a knock on his door caused him to sit up right.

"Come in Jean," Law said, recognizing the heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

"I didn't mean to disturb you, Captain, but I wanted to let you know that Segre is two days away and a storm has been forecasted from the west."

"Do you think we'll miss it?" Law asked, wondering if they should have stayed on the island a while longer.

"The storm is predicted to be severe, but at our current depth the sea shouldn't rock the sub any harder than we can handle," Jean predicted and was about to leave when Law stopped him.

"You mentioned you've been to Segre before: what's it like?"

"It's...relaxing, to say the least. I have fond memories of it," Jean replied.

"Wasn't it the hang out of the Cutthroat Pirates as well?" Law asked.

"It _was_, but no one has seen Mama or her ship for two weeks so she shouldn't be a problem," Jean said. "Besides, we have leverage."

Law furrowed his brow. "You mean Miss Akane?"

Jean shrugged and explained," I've known Mama for a long time, but if she is still active she could be unpredictable _especially_ since we have her last known crewmember."

"Alright, you can return to your post, Jean," Law said leaning back into his bed.

"Thank you, Captain. Good night." The metal door closed behind him as he stalked back up the stairs.

He had heard of the wrath Mama could bring, but the chances of her being at Segre were both high and low. Does he warn his crew before hand or let his guard down?

_I'll ask Akane in the morning_ Law thought and settled in for another night of restless sleep.

AN: Thank you for reading and I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Some people have been asking to see Akane's old wanted poster and I am currently debating whether or not to post some art for this on deviantart; there's a poll on my profile so feel free to put your input in. Also, if you haven't noticed, I have picked Thursday to post chapters for my story so stay tuned... god that sounds cheesy. Just leave since you're done and then come back next Thursday... yeah that works. Have a nice day!


	6. VI: Lanugo

AN: I'm going on vacation tomorrow so I thought I might as well just publish this chapter a day early. It's fluffier than usual, but, not to give anything away, you have no idea what is going to come...

In the midst of snoring and mumbled gibberish, what awoke Akane the next morning was being thrown out of bed and onto the metal floor, a still sleeping Bepo acting as a warm, fluffy cushion.

"What the hell?"

She looked over and saw Shachi next them with Penguin miraculously still in bed.

"Shachi, what's happening?" she asked, throwing her blanket off of her shoulders so she could get up.

"Look around, Akane: welcome to your first storm at sea aboard the _Yellow Submarine_," he said, pointing to the space between the two beds in the bunk to show Akane that the sub was now sideways. The vessel had shifted to the left and the bunks were now over their heads. "Don't worry about anything falling on you: everything is bolted to the floor."

"Good, you two are awake," Law said, entering the room. From the obscured angle it looked like he was walking on the walls. "Shachi, Jean has his hands tied with trying to fight through this current and I was hoping that you and Penguin could help him."

"Sure, Captain," Shachi, rising to his feet and nudging Penguin awake. After Penguin was more aware of his surroundings, the two headed out of the room, maneuvering around their captain.

"As for you, Miss Akane," Law said, stepping over and reaching out a hand to help her up. "You will be giving me a crash course in herbal remedies while we wait for the sub to realign itself."

"Well aren't you eager to start?"Akane accepted his hand and allowed him to lead her out of the room, watching how he stepped over doors that swung open due to the sideways angle of the submarine.

Law shrugged with one shoulder, the other connected to the arm using the wall as balance. "The only herbal medicine I know of is buying tea for consumption; making pastes and other concoctions is a different matter."

"I don't mean to brag, but when I'm through with you, you'll be able to cure anything with a root and a pestle," Akane said, but her confidence was squelched when she fell through an open doorway when she wasn't looking. A strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist from behind and pulled her back up.

"And hopefully when _Penguin's_ through with you, I can turn my back and you won't be in peril," Law quipped, swinging her body in front of him and letting her down. She whirled around to look at him, eye brow raised.

"You heard about that?"

"Heard about it? I _suggested _it," he said, allowing her to walk ahead, hopping over the gaps more easily with her makeshift night gown.

"It's for the best, I guess; the second mate always said that if I 'couldn't shoot for shit I would have been dead the second I got on a boat'," Akane quoted, causing Law to smile.

"She sounds like she's known you for a while," he commented.

"She was so clumsy, we got to know each other pretty well. Her name was Gray 'Flightless' Harper, I don't know if you would have recognized her or not," Akane said, sitting on the edge of the doorway leading to the medical bay.

Law sat beside her and cast his eyes to the side, thinking. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't ring a bell. Why did they call her 'Flightless'?"

"She ate the _stru-stru-fruit_, it turns its user into an ostrich; she couldn't fly, but she could run like hell," she said with a laugh.

Law chuckled before slipping through the door of the medical bay and placing his footing on top of his steel cabinet, reaching his arms up for Akane. "Everything may be bolted down, but nothing is preventing us from falling through and crashing into a bunch of needles, scalpels, and glass."

She nodded and carefully grabbed onto his tattooed forearms, bumping into the Jolly Rodger across his hoody as she came down. Law used the handles on the cabinet to climb down and gave a hand to Akane to climb down after him. This has been the third time since he's had the sub that it had flipped to either side to fight bad weather and his crew had adjusted to it well, with the exception of its newest member.

Law used the hospital beds lining the walls to make his way to his quarters, Akane following and using bookshelves as sideways ladders. "My quarters has the plants and the journals you bought so we'll head there for now."

"Well aren't you clever?"

Law looked back at her when they reached the door to his room, standing on opposite sides of the wall. The saucy, tiny smirk that played on her lips caused a similar one to spread to his face as well.

" Miss Akane, I'm appalled: you _really_ think this was all a ploy to get you to my quarters?" he asked, tipping his hat up to get a better look at her face.

She tucked her dark hair behind her ear before shrugging. "I don't know, Doctor; I've seen better."

"Allow me to try harder next time; a fatal injury with my nurse tending to my every whim, perhaps?" he said dryly, dropping through the hole and Akane following. Their feet landed on the dresser drawers beneath Law's bed. Law sat down with his legs brushing the fur covers of the bed before Akane sat down as well.

"My bedside manner is particularly great, Captain. If I had a suggestion box on the _Bloody Mary_, it would've been filled to the brim with complaints," she said, swinging her legs .

Law sat cross legged on the drawer. "The key is not allowing them to complain."

"Right? Anesthesia is a go to, but a hammer works just as well," she joked, laughing as Law shook his head.

The dress barely reached her legs, revealing a long burn that spiraled around her left leg, a light pink against the dark skin. "Miss Akane, what happened to your leg if you don't mind my asking?"

Akane looked down and saw he was pointing at the old burn and said," Oh, I've had that since I was young; my sisters and I were swimming and a bunch of jellyfish floated by and I got stung. In a weird way, it's the reason I got my Devil Fruit."

"How so?"

"When the tentacles wrapped around my leg, I was in so much pain I couldn't swim back to the shore. Kira, my sister, pulled me out, but I never went swimming again; when my father asked if I wanted to have a Devil Fruit to help me with my medical studies, I didn't hesitate," she explained, digging her feet into the soft fur of the bed. "How did you get yours?"

Law faced the sideways plant on the opposite wall.

"It was a gift."

"That's awfully generous; the best gift anyone's given me was when Nori gave me a seashell choker. It's back on the _Bloody Mary_ in my jewelry box so hopefully I can find it again," Akane said, sensing the slight tension breaking through the clipped statement.

He nodded and took off his fur hat, running a tattooed hand through his raven hair. "My brother gave me this hat after the first hunting expedition he went on with my father."

She took it from his hand and ran her fingers through the spotted, slightly matted, fur. "I have a feeling this has seen better days, Captain."

"I've had it for almost fourteen years: it should have some battle scars by now," he said, taking it back from her outstretched arm and plopping it back on his head.

"I don't know about you, but all this reminiscing wants me to crush something in a mortar. Is there any way we can get that plant without dying?" Akane asked and Law nodded with a smile.

"_Room_," he said and a blue dome illuminated his quarters. He cast out his hand and the plant began to rise toward him with the mortar and pestle following before resting beside them.

She began to pull leaves off the plant and asked," So anything within your 'room' and you can manipulate it, right?"

"You are correct, so what are we making?" he asked.

"By grinding these leaves into a paste, we can turn this witch hazel into something to heal bruises," she said and handed him the mortar and pestle with the leaves inside it.

"That's all there is to it?" Law ground the leaves until the liquid inside started making a viscous paste.

"For this, yes; once we start making drinks is where the difficulty sky rockets," she said, watching the green paste stir in the stone mortar.

Their lesson was cut short when the sub shifted again, only this time it was now upside down. Akane yelped when she fell sideways into Law, landing on top of him heavily; the drawers slid out and slammed into the both of them, trapping them further. She glanced down at her captain, the witch hazel smeared across his face twisted in disgust as the pungent stench. They both looked up when they heard from the transponder snail stuck to his nightstand.

"Sorry Captain!" Shachi and Penguin chorused from the other side of the submarine.

"I don't know how you do it, Doctor," Akane said, taking the front of her night gown and wiping his face," I mean, how can you stand submarines?"

She felt him smile beneath her hands. "No one is stopping you from going outside."


	7. VII: Cinereo Nubila

The sub returned upright and the two medics found themselves seated in the galley eating breakfast with the crew. Akane was at Law's left again while Bepo flanked his right and she realized that the crew ran like clockwork, rarely breaking out of their set ways.

"Segre is a resort island, according to Miss Akane and Jean, and we will be staying there for five days in order for the log pose to reset," Law said, carving the ham into individual slices with his silverware.

"Do we need to get supplies while we're there, Captain?" Penguin asked.

"We have enough from our last stop; we'll be fine until the next island, but even though Segre is a resort island I want all of you to be training or improving your skills in some way; we have no idea what's to come and we've gotten lucky this far without running into any fights," he answered, now slicing the strips into cubes.

"Wab abou da shub?" Shachi asked with his mouth full.

"If we can find a competent mechanic on this island, that'd be a plus. If not, we'll continue to do self repairs."

Jean appeared in the doorway twenty minutes into the meal, grabbing the plate set at his seat. "The island is in sight, we'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Thank you, Jean," the doctor said, sipping his black coffee.

"Akane," Jean said, causing Akane to look up from her half eaten ham. "Could I see you for a moment?"

"Sure." She backed up her chair and left the table while following the large dark haired man.

He didn't say a word until they were in the control room down the hall and he took the sub off of auto pilot when he returned to his chair.

"Did you need something, Jean?" she asked.

He kept his eyes focused on the dark ocean. "I want to see Nanami."

"Nanami? But she's-"

"I know." He turned to face her, dark eyes sizzling like extinguished coals. "I thought it'd be...the right thing to do while I'm there; I haven't been to Segre for ten years."

Akane nodded." I'll take you there after I finish training with Penguin."

"Alright, you can go finish breakfast if you want," he said, returning his focus to navigating the submarine, consuming his piece of ham in one bite.

The nurse shrugged and took a seat on one of the counters of the control panels. "I'm not really hungry, I'll be okay."

"Are you sure? You never seem to eat; is something eating _you_?" he asked, flipping the sub on auto pilot again and turning to her.

"Really, I'm fine," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Thank you for the concern, Jean."

"Is it because we're going to Segre?" he asked, his dark eyes searching hers.

Jean, being a former captain and slave, had picked up a knack for reading people in the past twenty years. It had begun on his ship when his crew would pocket treasure and the twitch of an eye or shudder of a shoulder would give them away; when he was a slave, he would search the faces of his "masters" to see if they were about to strike him or any of the other slaves by staring up at them. The slave owners thought he was just being a "dumb animal".

She cast her eyes sideways. "This is the first time in seven years that I've come to this island on another vessel, you know?"

"I understand," he said, but couldn't help but think she was still bothered by something, a crack in the glass boat while sharks circled.

It was all in her face, no matter how hard her eyes and body tried to hide the emotions raging inside of her, but Jean couldn't help picking up the buried expressions. When he joined the Heart Pirates, he realized how skilled he had become when he met Trafalgar Law.

The public knew him as the "Surgeon of Death", but Jean always thought "Plastic Surgeon" was a more fitting title with the way the young captain's face never moved. It was an admirable skill: a mask that could never fracture despite all the horrors he and his crew had seen together, but then again, Jean knew _nothing_ of his life before the Heart Pirates.

"Thank you, I guess we'll have to get through this together then, right?" Akane said, heading toward the door with his empty plate.

He smiled and nodded while saying," Of course."

She smiled and waved before closing the steel door behind her. He placed the sub back into his control. Law stepped into the control room with his nodachi in hand, ready for the island.

"Jean, are we almost to the island?" he asked, seeing the light pierce through the inky ocean as they went into shallower water.

"Yes, Captain: do you want us to surface?"

Law nodded and said," Yes...Jean, have any ships come up on the radar?"

"No, it looks like we're the only people visiting," the large man said, checking the telescope again as he pulled the lever to surface the submarine.

The water became lighter and lighter before the yellow sub broke through to the surface. Segre Island was large with a mountain range that bordered the fresh water lake in the middle of the island. The shops and hotels lined the shores all around the island with the nickname of "the ring of retail".

"Isn't that odd for a resort island to have _no visitors_?" Law asked, noting the lack of tourists walking along the board walk.

"Extremely," Jean said, raising the telescope back into the ceiling.

"Keep your guard up while I tell the others. And Jean," Law said, stopping in the doorway," if you see the Cutthroat Pirates, just keep it between you and me."

Nothing. Not an ounce of concern wavered the smooth politeness of his captain's voice.

He nodded once before turning back to his duties," Will do, Captain."

He heard the door close and the boots of his captain heading down to the medical bay.

"You people would be a lot happier if you stopped pretending you're numb," he muttered and steered the sub toward the shores of Segre.

The crew had split into pairs of two after Law made the decision that they should at least raid the shops for supplies or beli while they were ripe for the picking. He had taken Akane as his guide around the abandoned boardwalks that lined the outer ring of the island. The entire island was a shade of grey with the overcast, the sun looming behind thick clouds.

Akane looked sideways at the empty shops they passed, trying to imagine people browsing and chatting as they shopped. The sideways glances were difficult since she had the yellow spotted scarf wrapped around her head, obscuring her face except for her nose and eyes. The rest of the crew were in full uniform while they searched the shops for supplies to make minor repairs on the sub.

"Miss Akane, you seem ill; is there something wrong?" Law asked, his nodachi on his shoulder as they walked the empty board walk.

"I feel sick about this," she said, sweeping her arm around the deserted street. "Something's not right."

"Maybe they just picked up and left to a different island," he suggested, following her into one of the shops. The clothing store was collecting dust on its beautiful fabrics and accessories,

"Yeah, but without any of their merchandise?" she asked, picking up a long gown in her hand and shaking it, the dust danced in the sunlight of the store window. A button rolled to the floor at his booted feet.

Law bent down to pick it up, rolling the golden button in his spidery fingers. "If they left in such a hurry, is it dangerous for us to be here?"

"The only thing that I'm afraid of is being around this ghost town," she said, holding the yellow dress to her body as dusted off the mirror with a silk sleeve of the gown.

"Is there any place else you'd rather be?"

Akane glanced in the mirror and saw her captain had taken a seat behind her on the velvet love seat, his nodachi resting on his spotted lap. She put the dress down on the counter where she found it and began rooting through the hats.

"Mama's mansion is in the middle of the island; it'd take a day to get there, but there's all sorts of stuff you can take. Her ship's usually docked there too," she said, picking up a purple hat with a large brim and placing it on her head and turning to look into the mirror. The hat sunk over her eyes, causing her to miss Law's head flick toward her.

"What if she's there, Miss Akane: what will you do?" he asked, his gray eyes bearing into hers through the floor length mirror.

The hat came off her head and was thrown to the floor, dust creating a long streak on the hardwood floor. She slipped the scarf off her head, letting the yellow fabric hang around her neck; Akane unzipped the boiler suit to reveal her white bikini top, her former Jolly Rodger still tattooed on her left breast.

"Mama left me to die on an island; she might have not _meant_ to, but I owe you my life, Doctor," she said, her coffee eyes watching his angular face. She zipped her boiler suit up again and readjusted the scarf "She may be the captain of the Cutthroat Pirates, but she's fair and if you want me around, then keep me."

He rose from his seat, picking up the hat from the floor and plopping it back on her head. She reached her hand to adjust it, but he kept his hand planted firmly on the top of her head.

"You don't _keep_ people, Miss Akane: you tried to _kill _me _and_ injure my crew, but I spared your life because I needed another doctor. I've _invested_ in you and you've proven yourself competent enough to keep up with the break neck pace of the New World," he said seriously. He released his grip and allowed her to raise the felt brim. "If your old captain wanted you back, I wouldn't blame her, but I don't let my crew go that easily."

She saw him loom a head over her in the mirror and she couldn't help the smile take over her face as she took in his laid back one.

"Is this your version of complimenting my ability to kill and hurt people?" she asked, placing the hat on the counter.

"That's what doctors do best, isn't it?" he asked, going to pick up his nodachi on the love seat.

He stopped midway when he felt her pull his fur hat off of his head. When he turned around Akane jumped up and placed another hat on his head.

"I know you love this hat, but the overcast won't last forever and I don't want you sweating your ass off in the sun," she said.

Law glanced in the mirror and saw that a white, almost egg shaped, fur hat with a wide bill sat on his head. He adjusted the back of it and saw that the black spots were a larger version of his current hat. He furrowed his eyebrows that were hiding in the bill as he inspected in appearance in the mirror.

"I think it looks dapper," she said, picking up a straw hat with a blue ribbon and placing it on her scarf covered head.

"Dapper, huh?" he asked, going to the love seat and grabbing his nodachi and hat that was thrown onto the crushed velvet.

"Yeah, I think that's all we need from here, don't you think?" she asked, heading toward the door.

He quirked an eyebrow. "What about that dress?"

"Oh yes, a yellow ball gown really says 'the pirate's life for me', doesn't it?" Akane quipped, opening the door for her captain to walk out ahead of her before she joined him at his side.

When the pair returned to the beach with bags of goods, they found the rest of crew were already on the beach and had spread their loot all around the beach. Jean and Shachi were beginning to build a bonfire for the evening on the beach; Penguin and Bepo sat on either side of the ramp leading to the sub and leafed through the bags of random things they had found.

"Hey, Captain!" Shachi called from the fire pit. "Could you give me and Jean a hand with collecting firewood?"

"Sure, Shachi," Law said, turning to Akane and giving her his nodachi and hat. "Would you place these back in my quarters, Miss Akane?"

She nodded and headed toward the sub when Penguin stopped her with his leg, barring her own.

"Akane, since we have all this down time, why not begin our first training session?" he asked, adjusting the pom poms of his hat.

"I don't know, the doctor told me to put these in his qua-"

"Don't worry about that: Bepo can take them," he cut in and the polar bear looked over at him from picking through the jewelry.

"I'm the first mate, you can't tell me what to do!" he protested, but Penguin stared at him with his mouth pursed into a tight line.

"Sorry," Bepo said, taking the nodachi and hat from the nurse and heading down into the quarters. Her eyes followed the bear's retreating form before turning back to Penguin.

"Penguin, that wasn't very-" she was cut off again when his boiler suit hit her in the face.

"Cut the chit chat and get out of that boiler suit; I might as well teach you to fight without layers first since that's easier," he said, taking off his boots and heading toward the emptier side of the beach in cargo shorts and his hat.

She shrugged and slipped out of the boiler suit, following her crew mate's lead in a bikini and Law's boxers.

"Drop 'em, missy," Penguin said, motioning to her hips.

She looked down and back up at him, arms crossed over her chest and eyebrow quirked. "I'm not dropping anything until you do."

His face twisted into confusion as he said," I don't _have anything to drop_: you're the one with the unfair advantage and I'm evening the playing field."

"Ah, commando I see; talk about fighting dirty," she said, but shrugged and began pulling down the boxers when Penguin stopped her.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"You said drop them!"

"I meant your guns, pervert!" he exclaimed. Akane looked down and saw her pistols were still hanging off her hip.

"Oh, sorry!" she said and unfastened the holsters, throwing them into the sand a couple feet away.

"Alright, now that you are properly dressed, the first thing we're going to do is just have a little tussle; I need to see what you're made of. I'll even let you hit me first so let's see what you got," Penguin said, locking his body in a ready stance, awaiting the her attack.

She copied his stance, hesitating.

"Alright, any day now," he said, trying to coax her.

"This feels so phony: I can't attack you for no reason," she explained, lowering her fists to her waist.

"Okay then, um..." he trailed off, standing up right and looking around for inspiration. He noticed that Shachi had nudged Jean and they were both looking over at them, expecting to see a show. "I got it! Pretend I'm a mugger and you're just minding your own business."

She looked at him like he had grown another head before shrugging and going limp. "Dum de Dum, look at me: I'm just an innocent civilian just minding my own business, I hope there's no criminals lurking around."

Penguin rolled his eyes at her hokey acting and got back into his battle stance. "I'm going to attack you!"

"Ah," Akane said lamely, falling into the sand with a _thud_,mock fainting.

"Damn it, Akane! Take this seriously!" Penguin said, walking over to her.

When he reached down to grab her shoulders, her eyes shot open and it was too late for him to register what was happening before she kicked his legs out beneath him and rolled away before he landed.

She planted a foot squarely in his back. "Akane: one, Penguin: zero-"

She was cut off when he grabbed her ankle and pinned her to the ground when she fell.

"Now we're tie-" she kneed him in the gut hard and began running away.

He jumped up quickly, though slightly winded, and round house kicked her in the side. She fell to the ground hard and rolled onto her back where Penguin planted his foot firmly between her cleavage.

"There goes our nurse," Shachi said, arranging the fire wood into an orderly cone.

"Give the girl some credit: Penguin is pretty tough to fight with on the first try," Jean reasoned, bringing down the ax and splitting more wood from a fallen tree they had found.

"Why is Miss Akane on the ground with Penguin's foot lodged her in her chest?"

Shachi and Jean turned and saw Law return from the woods with a bundle of sticks and dried leaves in his arms.

"Oh, Penguin is helping Akane with her fighting skills... or lack thereof. Thank God she's a decent shot, am I right?" Shachi asked, taking the fire fuel from his captain.

"Yes, but if she can't fight, she's as good as dead when we start running into more crews." Law sat down on the grassy hill dipping into the beach across from his two crew members and watched the "epic" battle happening behind them.

Penguin appeared to be gloating, trying to aggravate Akane to continue fighting. He got his wish when she grabbed onto his ankles firmly and Law saw the muscle mass drain off of Penguin and the skin hang loosely on his body. She rose and held him by the ankles, the skin and fat dangling like water balloons off of his body. Akane then threw her now light weight target into the woods, brushing off her hands of sand.

"Holy shit! Akane just killed him!" Shachi said, causing Jean too look up from his work.

"There's no way, she looks too calm," Jean said and Law nodded behind them, even if they didn't see it. When she had killed the two bounty hunters, he saw her face flinch despite her body's sereneness.

"Just wait," Law said and the pirates watched the woods for any sign of their deflated friend.

Penguin spat twigs out of his mouth and slowly got to his knees to try to stand up again. He noticed his arms were returning to normal, retreating to their original form like a rubber band snapping back into its shape. A foot stepped onto his back and pushed him back into the pine needle covered ground.

"Hey!" Penguin said, trying to look around to see what was holding him down. "Are you seriously trying to mess with me after you mutated me?"

He only realized it wasn't Akane when he saw the upside down head of an ostrich look at him with beady eyes. They stared at each other for a long time before the bird squawked in his face and poked him in the nose with its sharp beak.

"That's it! You're going down and onto my dinner plate, you stupid bird!" Penguin said and with his returned strength grabbed the ostrich's legs and threw it forward into the bushes.

He quickly rose and was ready to fight when he saw it hop back onto its feet and run wildly back into the forest, the black and white feathers fluttering behind its retreating form.

"What the hell?" he asked himself, sitting on a log and pulling his matches and pipe out of his cargo shorts and began stuffing tobacco in his pipe.

"Penguin? Penguin? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to throw you that hard!" Akane said, finally appearing through the thicket.

"Don't worry about me; I've been through worse than that," he said, lighting the pipe and letting a ring of smoke escape his lips.

"You smoke?" she asked, pointing to his pipe.

"Yeah, I've tried to quit but it's just tobacco, so it's not too terrible every once in a while," he said with a shrug.

"You're bleeding a little from your nose, but it doesn't look broken," she observed, sitting beside him to prod his nose with her fingers.

"A stupid bird came along and stabbed me right in the schnauzer," he said, his voice nasally as she pinched the bridge and leaned his head back to try to stop the bleeding.

"Must have been a big bird, do you know what kind it was?" she asked, unfazed by the blood slipping from between her fingers.

"I don't know much about birds, but it was tall and black and white," he said explained. "The only birds I've seen growing up were penguins, seagulls, and the weird things Captain throws together."

They fell into a silence since Penguin had to begin breathing through his mouth. The caws of birds and the wind blowing through the trees filled the gap of sound with Penguin's pipe still burning in his hand.

"So long have you been smoking?" Akane said, releasing his nose and wiping her bloodied hand on Law's yellow boxers, staining them orange.

"Three years, but only now and again. It's hard to get away from the crew to smoke since no one let's me, but I guess it makes it more special," he said, bringing the pipe to his lips and releasing a gray cloud into the green forest.

Akane watched the smoke float up towards the purple sky, the sun beginning to set. "I know what you mean: I've smoked a cigar only three times in my life."

"Really? I thought all doctors are super anal about smoking. Captain puts mine out when he catches me."

"I only smoke in celebration," she said, smiling and leaning back against the tree behind them.

"Like what? Shachi says you don't even drink," he said, eyeing her curiously.

She counted the events on her fingers, crossing her legs into a criss-cross. "When I was nineteen and first joined the Cutthroats, they went out drinking and I went to blend in: I drank, smoked, partied, and slept around _hard _for a month because I was _free_, you know? I didn't have to work sixteen hour shifts or take care of my siblings; I could do whatever I wanted for once, you know?"

He nodded, letting his pipe hand rest in his lap. "I know _exactly_ what you mean. When I first joined the Heart Pirates, that was my first time being away from home and I just went wild with Shachi. The first year is a whole blur of being passed out around the sub or on the beach. When was the second time?"

"The second time was when Harper, the second mate, came back from a one night stand with a Marine. Turns out he gave her, like, six cigars and some cash to keep quiet and she split her stash with me."

"Were you close to her? I mean, if she gives you some cigars, you must have been more than acquaintances," he asked, bringing the pipe to his lips, but just letting it hang there while they spoke; the smoke curled into the air and around them like an old friend.

"When I look back on it now, I guess we were close _enough_ to be more than that, but less than friends, you know? We just hung around each other a lot; I wasn't looking to make friends though," she explained and he nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's kind of how me and Shachi became friends as kids; our parents were friends so we kind of became friends out of obligation. It's one of the best decisions I made because he and his big mouth can get us into or out of _a lot _of trouble," he said, earning a snort from her. "And the third time?"

"Right now: hand it over," she said, holding her palm out. He laughed and handed it over and watched when she inhaled deeply and blew a ring into the atmosphere.

"What are we celebrating, Akane?" he asked, leaning back on the tree with her.

She was silent for while, letting the gray smoke escape her mouth like air from a balloon. She finally turned and smiled at him. "This is the first crew I've been on where I knew everyone by name and no one's tried to kill me."

He laughed and replied, "Okay, then I'll celebrate the fact I'm sharing a pipe with a doctor of the Heart Pirates."

Akane grinned and turned the pipe over in her fingers, admiring the intricate nautical designs etched into it before giving it back to him. "Where'd you pick up such a nice pipe?"

He leaned forward. "The story of this pipe is my dad was a Marine that died in a fire fight with pirates."

"I'm so sorry," she said, watching him release a puff of smoke.

He waved his hand, erasing the gray cloud."It could of happened to anyone, so it's not like I'm jaded or anything, but he always had this pipe that he smoked all the time when I was growing up and it was on him at all times.

When he died, I was already with this crew and we were starting to get a reputation around the Grand Line too. We had a pretty bad run in with the Marines and after thrashing around a while, Captain said we should just leave. We were about to go when someone shout 'Lucas!'."

"Lucas?" she asked, taking the pipe from him again to take a puff.

"What, you thought my _real name_ was Penguin? They just call me that because when I was little I fought a bunch of penguins over a fish," he explained and she began coughing harshly from the smoke she swallowed as she laughed.

"Life in the arctic sure is exciting," she giggled and he took the pipe back, giving her a shove.

"That's beside the point! Anyway, I turn around and this pink haired Marine comes running over to me with a box in his hand. He said 'I'm sorry about your dad' and all that stuff but he told me that my dad talked about giving me the pipe and he was looking all over for me. And just as quickly as he came, he ran back to the Marines," he said, looking down at the pipe.

"That's so cool," she said, leaning her head on her hand as she talked to him.

He nodded once. "I wish I would have said something or shook his hand because that was honestly the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me."

"Penguin? Akane? Where are you? Captain hunted down a moose! " Shachi called from the forest's edge.

The two realized the sun was barely hanging over the horizon and night was beginning to fall, the sky fading from purple into a rich midnight blue.

"We're fine, just a second, Shachi!" Penguin called. He emptied the pipe's contents onto the ground and stamping out the heat with his bare foot.

"This is our little secret, okay?" he said, looking down at her.

She nodded and said," Hold on a second."

Akane scooped up a bunch of the soft dirt into her hands and slapped some onto Penguin's shoulders, chest, and back before doing the same.

She snatched his hat off his head and said," Follow my lead."

"Oh there's your hat!" she exclaimed and lead them out of the forest and onto the beach where Shachi was waiting. "Sorry, Shachi: after I kicked his ass so badly, he lost his hat and we've been looking for it ever since."

"That is _not _what happened: you cheated!" Penguin snapped, ripping his hat out of her hands and stalking towards the bonfire the rest of the crew concocted, the bright, orange flames licking the starry night sky.

Akane was about to follow behind when Shachi stopped her. He reached into the pocket of his boiler suit and pulled out gum, holding out a stick for her to take. She gratefully popped it into her mouth, blowing a large, minty bubble.

"Yeah, your ruse isn't going to fool anyone so you might as well at least look halfway innocent," he explained, winking and popping the bubble with his finger.

The gum was stuck all over her face and she screeched before chasing after Shachi down the beach.


	8. VIII: Scientia

"This is really good deer; where'd you see it at, Captain?" Penguin asked, leaning back in the sand after he ate an entire deer leg.

Jean was in the forest getting more firewood while Shachi, Penguin, Law, and Akane sat around the large fire in the sand. Akane kept the deer head that had its antlers and hair intact on her lap as she split the bones on the ground in half before throwing them into the fire.

Law poked the fire with a branch before throwing it in. "It was just in the clearing so it was easy to kill and skin."

"So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Shachi asked before taking a bite from his rack of ribs.

"I don't know, it all depends on _what_ the island has to offer," he replied, glancing over at Akane.

"Depends on what you want to do; there's lakes to swim in, mountains to climb, stores to raid... and there's Mama's mansion if you want to check it out," she said, listing off the activities on her fingers.

"What's there?"

She shrugged. "Clothes, money, food possibly, maps. As a former representative of the Cutthroat Pirates, I give you permission to look about the grounds without being shot by a sniper."

"Snipers?" Penguin asked.

"Yeah, there was me and the musician, Miya. She had a bow and arrow and I had, you know, a sniper rifle. We used it on intruders rarely: mostly we shot at bears or squirrels when we were bored on patrol."

"Speaking of bears, where's Bepo? I haven't seen him since Penguin and Akane were training," Shachi asked, wiping his hands on his cargo pants.

"I saw him go into the sub and didn't see him come out; do you think he's okay?" she asked, stopping mid snap.

Law rose, grabbing his nodachi from beside him. "I'm sure Bepo's fine, but I'll go check on him."

Shachi watched his captain's yellow back be obscured by the night before asking," So what exactly are we going to do here while we wait for the log pose to set?"

"We should definitely go to Mama's mansion for supplies and beli; it's a one day journey both ways, but at least it's something to do," Akane said, absentmindedly stroking the deer's short hair.

"Did you guys really come here that often?" Penguin asked, staring into the dead eyes of the deer with a lost appetite.

"It's one of the safest places to be in the New World and it's where we're always welcome," she said shrugging.

"I believe it... would you stop petting that deer head? You're creeping me out!"

In the woods, Jean used the moonlight breaking through the palm trees to look for more branches. The fire licked the night sky over the trees, showing no signs of dying, but Jean thought it would be better to have more on standby.

_"As I went down in the river to pray, studying about that good old way and who shall wear the starry crown good lord, show me the way."_

A new, sweet voice pierced the night with a ray of star shine as it made its way to Jean's ears. He dropped the branches he was carrying and began dashing through the woods like a madman.

_"Oh sisters, let's go down. Let's go down, come on down. Oh sisters, let's go down, down in the river to pray."_

The large man could hear the voices of his crewmates fading, but he was more concerned with his own agenda than collecting firewood. He finally made it to the center of the island, a gorgeous blue lake that lapped at the shore calmly as he stepped out of the forest and onto the beach.

_"As I went down in the river to pray, studying about that good old way and who shall wear the robe and crown good Lord, show me the way."_

His body was not his own as he felt the icy water burn him as he began wading blindly. The moon washed over his skin and raven hair blended into the night, the water rising to his waist. A shadow stretched to the center of the lake, reaching toward him.

_"Oh sinners, let's go down. Let's go down, don't you wanna go down? Oh sinners, let's go down, down in the river to pray." _

He had no idea where he was swimming to as his shoulder became covered in the salty water. As each note pierced Jean's skull, he felt so at peace and in danger all at the same time because he was possessed by the sweet song.

_ "As I went down in the river to pray, studying about that good old way and who shall wear the robe and crown good Lord, show me-"_

A burst of light at the other end of the lake forced him out his stupor. When his eyes adjusted from the darkness to the light, Jean realized it was a ship floating in the middle of the lake; the red wood floating on the dark lake with golden light striking out of the portholes that dotted the ship.

It was then he realized he had no idea why he had swam a mile into the middle of a lake and used his remaining strength to swim to shore. He tore through the forest, the sand gnawing at his feet and legs as they pushed through the green.

"Go back to the sub, all of you," Jean said as he reappeared on the other side. A deer head sat blackening in the center of the fire.

"What's wrong, Jean?" Akane asked and his gaze penetrated her with its seriousness.

"We're not safe here; we need to go back into the sub," he said again and took the bucket of water by the fire and watched as the flames died immediately.

Their captain sat at his wooden desk in the medical bay, listening to the message on his transponder snail while the polar bear sat on the tiled floor in front of him.

_"Captain Trafalgar: I never thought we'd cross paths again, but heheheh fate has a funny way of intertwining destinies, eh? We last ran into each other a very long time ago; you might not have seen me, but I certainly saw you. You were just beginning to get those horrible bags under your eyes."_ The raspy voice curled out of his transponder snail like smoke.

Law stared at the corner of his desk intensely as he listened. Bepo shifted to his side uncomfortably.

_"Anyway, I couldn't help but notice you've made a stop on Segre; interesting choice, to say the least, not many pirates know about it...but then again, you _are_ well connected. I mention Segre because there is a plant, the tecra root, that you will especially find useful."_

_ "I'll be vague, the walls have ears you know." _Bepo picked up a book and pretended to read it as he felt his captain's gaze shift over to him momentarily.

He leaned forward in his desk, glancing at the snail hidden within the skull. 

_ "Tell the nurse you have a headache; maybe you won't look so sad..."_

"What did they mean by that, Captain?" Bepo asked, glancing up from the medical text.

He leaned back in his leather chair, rubbing the facial hair along his chin thoughtfully and said," I don't know, Bepo, but I'm more curious as to how they were able to contact me and know we're here."

"Do you think it's a trap from the Marines?" he asked quietly, his black eyes looking at Law's thoughtful face.

He closed his eyes, taking off his hat and running his hands over his face " Who knows. You can go to bed, Bepo: we have a long day ahead of us."

He nodded and left as his captain turned around to face the bookshelf behind his desk, deep in thought.

"Tell the nurse you have a headache and you won't look so sad," he repeated out loud.

"Captain?" Law turned around in his chair to see Akane standing in the doorway in her nightshift.

"Akane, sit." She followed his command and sat at the edge of the desk like she normally did. "What is a tecra root and what does it do?"

She gave him an odd look, but explained," It's just a root that you can grind into a paste and slab it on things; it's really pungent, but can relieve headaches. My parents used it to detect toxins in their chemicals."

"Why would they need to use chemicals?" he asked, leaning forward.

"They were Marine scientists," she explained, glancing at the hat she found for him that day.

_ Tell the nurse you have a headache; maybe you won't look so sad..._

"Marine scientists? What kind of chemicals were they working with?" he asked. An unidentifiable emotion swam beneath the surface of her brown eyes as soon as the question left his mouth. "Is it confidential information?"

"No, it's been nearly ten years since I've been in their lab and I doubt anyone works on the project now," she said, flipping through the pages of the book her bunkmate was previously reading.

"You've only been a pirate for ten years?"

"No, my parents died in a lab accident when I was fifteen; I left home when I was nineteen," she said quietly.

"Why'd you wait three years?" he asked, putting his feet on his desk.

"I had to take care of my sisters: Nori was seven and Kira was thirteen when it happened so I had to take up a job as a nurse for a plastic surgeon on the island and the rest is history," she said.

"Captain." Jean walked in with a map in his hand. He strode up to the desk and handed the map to Law. "I found a map of Segre."

There was a tension in the air that hung between the navigator and captain Law couldn't place, but simply nodded in understanding as Jean left the room as abruptly as he came. Law glanced down at the map and saw in the middle of the lake in thick, red ink Jean had written in his elegant scrawl: _**Bloody Mary**__._

Law inhaled and exhaled to calm the nerve that was crawling up his back. He glanced over at his nurse. Akane continued to flip through the book obliviously. "Page 45 has the tecra root in it if you're wondering."

"Where does the pestle and mortar come into your medical training?" he asked, nodding at the cabinet where they were kept across the room.

"I picked that up on Amazon Lily actually; they have _tons _of exotic plants to practice with, " she said leaning back on her arms.

"My mother's from there," he said thoughtfully.

"Really? How'd she end up in the North Blue?" she asked, crossing her legs on the desk.

"My father is a fur trapper and fishermen. He went to Amazon Lily. My mother is from Amazon Lily. They went back to the North Blue. They had three children so, here I am," he said, smiling at her disappointed expression. "I'm sorry, were you expecting a sweeping romance, Miss Akane?"

She threw her hands up in the air," I don't know , I was expecting _something_."

He chuckled, rising to walk to his quarters. "It's late, perhaps you can dream up something that will satiate your needs of fantasy."

She slid off the desk and walked the opposite way, throwing a "good night" over her shoulder before heading back to her bunk.

For once, Law attempted to have a good night's sleep and settled into the fur covers after kicking off his boots and sweatshirt. His breathing slowed as he allowed sleep to overtake him, but the phrase slithered inside his skull.

_ Tell the nurse you have a headache; maybe you won't look so sad..."_

He rolled over, flopping onto his stomach, as if that would quell the phrase. He didn't know what bothered him more: the phrase or the call as a whole. Either way, it was unsettling and he wouldn't admit it to himself, but what got under his skin more so was the mention of his location and crewmate, Akane.

_Tell the nurse you have a headache; maybe you won't look so sad..."_

He pulled the covers over his raven head and wrapped himself into a cocoon similar to when he was a child and the howling winds of a blizzard would keep him awake at night.

_Sad._

_ SAD_.

_**SAD.**_

__His eye shot open.

The next morning, the crew were standing outside the subs with sacks or back backs over their wife beaters and cargo shorts while they waited for Law to give them instructions. They all agreed it was too hot for their boiler suits, but took them along for the cold nights. Law finally came down the ramp of the sub with his nodachi in hand and Akane behind him with both of their transponder snails in each hand in her white shorts and bikini top.

"Jean, Penguin, and Shachi will go around the left side of the island while Bepo, Miss Akane, and myself cut through the right side; we will meet at Captain Mama's mansion where we have Miss Akane's permission to stock up on weapons and food. Are there any questions?" he asked, stepping onto the beach and waiting for Akane to step down before Jean locked the sub up.

"How will we communicate with each other if we're on separate sides of the island?" Penguin asked, raising his hand.

"I hooked up mine and Captain's snails so we can communicate," she said, handing him the little pink snail she had taken from the bounty hunters.

"Of course we get the pink one," Shachi muttered to Penguin as they followed Jean behind into the woods.

Law glanced at Akane. "So, where to?"

"It's faster and safer to cross over the lake to the mansion since it's a straight shot; there's a boat house right on the water that we can borrow a boat from." She saw the apprehension swimming beneath the surface of his gray eyes. "The woods are full of wild animals that like to feast on the flesh of doctors and I'd rather not spend the night in them."

"I don't think it's a bad idea," Bepo chimed, carrying their belongings on his back.

"It's not a bad idea, I'm just wondering how two Devil Fruit users and a bear are going to do on a boat in the middle of a lake," he said, crossing his arms over his Jolly Rodger's grin.

"It's a motorized boat so we won't have to do much rowing and it's spring water so we should be fine," she said, a challenge settling in her smile.

"Whatever you say, Miss Akane, but I won't bring you a souvenir when I'm at the bottom of the lake," he said, his mask never showing the worry that lied beneath it.

Six hours later, the three found themselves in the middle of Lake Yald, the hum of the engine spurring them across at two miles per hour; the lake itself was fifty miles across to the mansion so they agreed they would boat once that day and once the next. The sun was beginning to dip below the trees and the blue sky became darker with each passing hour.

The water was incredibly blue, the color ink makes when it's spilled into clear water. The trees were lush and tall, spotting the mountain in the distance. Law enjoyed the landscape quietly while leaning against Bepo who was taking a nap on the deck.

The boat was small, possibly ten by ten feet, but Akane had driven one before the last time she was at the island and seemed to be quiet skilled.

"It's actually pretty easy, Captain. You can drive it later, if you like," she said, focusing on the water.

He smiled lazily and waved a tan arm. "No thank you, I'd rather have you drive it."

"Whatever you say," she said shrugging and the two went back to their respective duties.

They fell into a comfortable silence when they were jolted out of peace, the passengers lurching forward.

"What the hell?" Akane said, rubbing her forehead after slamming it on the wheel. "Are you guys okay?"

"Fine, we're fine," he said, standing up while Bepo groggily looked around.

"Are we there?" he asked tiredly, blinking slowly.

"No, Bepo, we're running into technical difficulties. Captain, could you look at the bow and see if anything's caught while I check out the engine?" she asked, moving to the back of the boat.

He nodded and set his knees on the bench in the front, looking into the clear water for any disturbance.

"Son of a bitch!"

"What is it, Miss Akane?"

"The engine's gone! It's been completely torn off!" she exclaimed, hanging over the side and looking for any clues.

He turned to look at what she was talking about. A shadow out of the corner of his eye only gave him a two second warning before he was pulled into the water.

"Captain!"

Law was deaf to Bepo and Akane's cries as he was dragged toward the bottom of the lake by an unknown force. He hadn't seen what had grabbed him above and he certainly couldn't see now that his vision stung with salt water.

The blue water became darker and darker the further they went down, the creature dragging him to the bottom faster than his Devil Fruit would have.

A shadow moved in front of his face, the creature that had pulled him down. It grasped at his arms to prevent him from sinking, his sleeves shifting in the water slowly as it inspected him. He knew it wasn't human by the scaly limbs that brushed against his legs and the webbed claws that grasped at his hand marked DEATH.

"Trafalgar Law," a voice said, the words coming out as bubbles brushing past his face.

His lungs burned, but his face showed little to no signs of discomfort.

"Filthy pirate," the voice said again].

The creature delivered a hard kick to Law's stomach, in the center of the smiling Jolly Rodger. His remaining air exploded in bubbles and the water rushed down his throat.

It cried out in pain and red ribbons of blood flew out of its torso, staining the blue water. It cursed loudly again, pulling the bullet lodged in its stomach out; the silvery bullet sunk to the bottom of the lake.

"Filthy pirate," the creatures said again, angling it's head toward the surface before swimming away leaving only a cloud of red in its wake.

The darkness of the water began expanding rapidly as he began losing consciousness; he barely saw the orange blob swimming down to him.

Akane paced around the boat, wringing her hands as she waited for Bepo to come back with Law. She knew of the creatures that lurked in the forest, but had no idea there was anything dangerous in the cerulean waters below her. The first aid kit was already out and ready, leaving her with nothing to do but pace wildly. She was tempted to look over the side of the boat, but knew how foolish it would be after her captain was just dragged to the sandy bottom.

The water broke harshly behind her and she saw Bepo with Law's hood in his mouth to carry his captain. He climbed back into the boat carefully, rocking it as he settled himself in. He laid Law on the deck gently before sitting back in his original spot, watching Akane swoop in like a vulture to inspect him.

"Is he dead?" Bepo asked worriedly.

Akane pulled Law's heavy, drenched hoody and black shirt off his limp body and pressed her ear to his chest, listening to his heart beat. "No, he's still alive, but I need to get rid of the fluid in his lungs."

She felt her face and realized it was wet with blood from the three deep claw marks painting red across his chest. The black ink of his Jolly Rodger tattoo was obscured by the middle claw mark straight through the smiley. Shaking her head, she dried his torso with a towel.

"Come on, Captain, one, two three," she said. She pressed her bare hands over where his lungs were and ,using her Devil Fruit, squeezed them enough to force the water out.

The world flooded back to Law when he was coughing up water, mixing with the blood that was collecting on the deck of the boat. He looked up and saw half of Akane's face was covered in blood, the setting sun giving her a back drop of exploding blood reds and bruise colored purples.

"Miss Akane, are you hurt?" he asked, grabbing her chin. She removed his hand and pressed her hands against his shoulders in order to make him lie down.

"No, but _you_ are critically injured and I'll have to sew you back together. Please remain still," she said, reaching for the first aid kit behind her and began pulling out rubbing alcohol and needles.

Bepo sat quietly on the other side of the ship facing away from the two medics, looking into the water for any lurking danger, while Akane proceeded to stitch up Law.

He watched as she pulled his tan skin together over the gushing red wound with surgical thread. She had steady hands and a focused face when he glanced at it, but he was more engrossed with finally watching his nurse work on a patient.

"It'll only hurt worse if you watch me so closely," she said, dropping the bloodied towel over his eyes.

He shook it off and replied," I'm simply a doctor watching another doctor sew someone back together."

She pressed his shoulders back into the wooden deck, placing one hand over his eyes while her other thumb ran over the line of neat stitches. She moved onto the next one and he ignored her again to watch the steady rhythm of her hands.

"Thank you for shooting it; I'm pretty sure it would have killed me if you weren't such a good shot," he said, his mouth a thin line as she patched up the largest wound in the center of his chest.

He saw through the corner of his eye her facial muscles pull into smile. "I'm supposed to be saving the life of my captain, right?"

"I only hired you to be nurse, Miss, Akane, I never thought I'd get a sharp shooter and body guard out of it too," he said, shrugging as best he could.

Bepo rested his large head near his captain's and his white fur contained hues of purple and blue as the day nearly gave way to night. "Why'd you want to become a doctor in the first place? I think your sword play would have landed you a spot on a pirate ship anyway."

He exhaled. "When I was young I was always fascinated with how things broke and came together again. The first time I remember seeing something break was when my older brother, Eli, broke my mother's vase and I watched him glue the entire thing back together perfectly. It was in thousands of pieces before, but my brother told me 'anything that can break, can be fixed'."

"So when did you start fixing vases?" she asked, tying the thread and working onto the last wound.

"My father and my brother would leave for months at a time to hunt and fish, but they would always bring things back for my mother, sister, and me; in all reality, I think it was Caroline who sealed the fate of my doctoral interests. I repaired her porcelain dolls more often than she played with them. The first medical book I read was about facial reconstruction because I couldn't remember how to make the cheekbones look right when I was gluing them back together," he said, laughing lightly.

She put a hand on his stomach to stop the movement. "Was the book _Hopkins' Reconstruction of the Human Face_?"

"Of course, I imagine you've read it," Law said and sat up again after she began putting away the needle and thread.

"Yeah, it was the only one in the doctor's office that I had access to from the lobby," she said, sliding the first aid kit under the driver's seat of the boat. "It's too dark to drive and our engine's gone anyway, so we might as well just float here for the night."

"Sounds good...but can you hand me my clothes in that bag? he said and she tossed him Bepo's back pack.

He pulled out a gray shirt and a long black coat that reached his ankles, slipping them both on. When he turned back around, Akane had gotten a blanket and handed it to him. Law stretched out his legs and leaned against the warm, soft body of his first mate with the blanket loosely around his shoulders.

Akane settled next to him moments later with her own blanket. She kicked off her shoes next to his hat and soaked clothing. The silhouette of her shapely body was the only thing he could see in the night that settled since they had no lanterns.

"Tired, Miss Akane?" he asked, his voice seeming almost too loud for the quiet night.

"I've been driving a boat all day in the hot sun and I had to save my captain's life so I'm pretty tuckered out. Besides, it's not every day I can sap off the body heat of a polar bear," she said, shrugging her shoulder against his.

He hummed in acknowledgement, closing his eyes as he listened. The sky was an explosion stars, millions of white dots against a dark blue canvas.

"When I look at the stars, I feel so small and big at the same time, you know? Just think, that we're this tiny blue dot in the rest of this huge universe, but we're kind of center of our own universe, right? Every time we move, we're the center of the universe, no matter how small and tiny we are. It seems so crazy and sane at the same time, I think I'm a philosopher sometimes," she said randomly, her warm breath hitting his cold face.

Law nodded, the movement she could feel through their shoulders. "How could you possibly find sleep with all these little thoughts running through your head, Miss Akane?"

Akane nudged him in the side," You must think of dumb ideas at least once in awhile, Captain."

"Maybe I do, but you'd never know it," he joked, a smile tearing across his face.

She was about to make a retort when she pointed up at the sky. "Look! A shooting star!"

"What are you going to wish for?" he asked teasingly.

She was quiet for a while and he felt her hand reach up to play with her long raven hair that blended into the night. She never told him what she wanted and he found her to be asleep.

"Miss Akane?" he whispered. She answered with her head falling heavily on his lanky shoulder. He made no comment on their closeness and allowed her to drift off to sleep while he stared at the night sky while falling in and out of consciousness.

On the left side of the island, Jean was asleep in a deep pit with Shachi and Penguin still awake. They had fallen into a booby trap earlier that day and had given up trying to get out for now, saving their energy for tomorrow.

Jean slept in-between the two pirates and they decided they'd just talk amongst themselves out of boredom.

"Captain seem kind of weird to you?" Penguin asked out of blue.

"Weirder than usual?"

"Shachi."

"I don't mean like bad weird, but come on: the guy doesn't sleep and dissects things for fun," he said honestly, using hand gestures even though he knew Penguin couldn't see him due to the darkness.

"But that's _normal_ for him. Lately when I see him, he's always reading or sleeping," he said exasperatedly.

"That's normal for him too, Pen. I think you're losing it more than our captain supposedly is," Shachi replied dryly.

"I swear to god something's different!" he cried, slamming his fist on the soft earth.

"Do you think it has something to do with Aka?"

"Aka?" Penguin asked, his raised eyebrow concealed by his hat.

"Yeah, Akane's a mouthful. Think about it: Jean, Shachi, Penguin, Bepo, Captain... _Akane,_" he explained.

"I don't get it."

"It's longer than our names! So that's why I'm going to call her Aka," Shachi said, crossing his arms and trying to gain some relief from the chilly night.

"To her face?"

"Of course not, you dolt!" Shachi kicked his friend's boot, unable to reach him because of Jean.

"Regardless of what we call her, why do you say that she might be making the captain weird?" Penguin asked, drawing his legs to his chest.

"They're always together in the medical bay."

"Yeah, they're doctors."

"No! I mean, I don't know, do you think something's up?"

"With Captain and Akane?" he asked, looking at his friend in the darkness, unable to see his face.

"Yeah," Shachi said unsurely.

"I don't even think they know."


	9. IX: Unum

AN: If this has mistakes in it, I apologize before hand. My editing was sloppy on this because I was doing college visits today and it's been wild. Thank you so much for the support!

Law realized he actually fell asleep when he awoke the next morning after feeling slightly colder than before. He opened one eye and saw Akane with a blanket wrapped over her shoulders as she began rooting through the ship's storage unit in the floor for supplies. Her back was turned to him and she bent over obliviously looking for things.

He smirked and planted his foot firmly on her backside and pushed her forward. "It's bad for your back to bend over like that."

She regained her balance and turned to face him. "It's also bad for your health to be kicking the doctor. Good morning, Doctor."

"Good morning, Nurse."

She climbed out of the little pit and got the first aid kit out from underneath the driver's chair again. She knelt beside Law and began taking out the supplies. He closed his eyes again and rested against Bepo, the bear still miles away in dreamland.

"I'm guessing you slept well if you're already trying to go back to sleep," she said, snapping the surgical gloves in place.

"Simply resting my eyes, Miss Akane," he said calmly. His eyes opened again when she was unbuttoning his black coat and tugging it off his shoulders.

"So you do have something heavier than a sweatshirt," she said, not looking up from her task. He grabbed her tattooed hand, pulling his shirt over his head and laid on the cold wooden deck.

"I picked it up a while ago," he said, resting back on his elbows while he watched her analyze her work. "I'm not in any immobilizing pain and your stitches are straight; I don't think you have much to check up on."

She smiled as she placed the stethoscope into her ears. "Thank you, Captain, but I think we'd both find it more comforting if I checked anyway."

She started with placing the medical instrument into the center of his back. She didn't need to tell him to take a deep breath and they commenced the check up in silence. She moved onto his front, running her fingers along the scar while she listened to his strong heart beat. Her dark eyes kept flicking down to the scar going through his Jolly Rodger's grin.

"Finding everything okay?" he asked, catching her gaze.

She placed her long hair behind her ear before letting the stethoscope rest on her collar bone. "I just couldn't help notice your tattoo; how long have you had it?"

"Ten years. This one is actually my first tattoo," he said, pointing to his chest. "The rest just followed afterward."

"Your Jolly Rodger is very similar to another crew's," she said, handing him his dried sweatshirt and shirt while putting the medical supplies away.

"Which one." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Law made no move to put his clothing back on, leaving his tattoo out in the open.

It wasn't a question, it was a _challenge._

Akane wasn't an idiot. Mama had always told her a phrase she nearly lived by: "It's better to stub your toe on the line than lose your entire leg crossing it."

She swallowed and ran a hand through her hair, shrugging. "There's so many crews out there, I may have forgotten it."

"Let me know if you remember it," he said, his calm voice floating above her head.

Bepo began snoring loudly, sparing Akane from having a staring contest with her captain. She hadn't realized how frightening her captain could be until trying to ask him about his previous crew. She also hadn't realized how a sleeping polar would save the day.

"Are we there yet, Akane?" Bepo asked sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"No, but it looks like we'll have to paddle there since the engine is broken," she said, pulling two paddles out of the storage space and handing one to Law.

He looked at the wooden paddle in his tattooed hands and then north where the shore looked to be miles away. "We're going to paddle almost twenty miles, Miss Akane?"

"Do you have a better suggestion, Captain?" she asked, sitting in the driver's seat.

His laid back smile escalated into a confident smirk as a plan formed. "_Room."_

The trio were bathed in the blue light of Law's room and his gaze was set on the shoreline.

"Captain, what are you doi-"

"Shh."

The steady rocking of the water ceased when it slowly rose above the water. He kept his attention focused on the shore and they were jarred forward and were rapidly approaching the shore. Bepo and Akane slid to the back of the boat, the white polar bear crushing the small woman while Law braced his free hand onto the side railing.

The shore was coming in fast and the blue dome disappeared before they ran into one of the tall trees. Akane yelped when the boat fell down onto the sand roughly before falling to the side, Bepo falling on top of her as they all fell out of the boat.

"Sorry," Bepo said, rising and picking up the nurse before placing her back on her feet.

"That's okay, Bepo: at least we're on the island," she said, patting his orange sleeved arm before turning to Law who was brushing the sand off of his spotted pants. "You could have done that the whole time and you didn't tell me?"

His laid back smile returned as he adjusted the bill of his hat, saying honestly," I guess I was too busy enjoying the scenery and it must have slipped my mind."

She elbowed him as she passed by, leading them into the forest. They walked side by side with Bepo trailing behind them on look out.

"It's not far from here; maybe ten minutes more," she said, striding confidently through the forest, each step haven been taken before.

Law nodded, but noticed she kept looking up at the trees. "Bird watching, Miss Akane?"

"No, I'm seeing if there are any snipers above us; we haven't fallen into any of the traps either so that's a good sign," she responded.

"Traps?" he asked, stepping over a twisted tree root.

"Yeah, like holes covered with tarps, falling on spikes, poisonous plants... those kinds of things," she explained, stopping at a tree.

"Seems excessive, don't you think?" he asked, watching as she felt up and down the smooth trunk.

She eventually found the right switch and metal rungs slid out of the brown bark. "Maybe, but Mama didn't like being disturbed out here. Her 'treasures' are kept here."

"What kinds of treasures do you mean?" he asked, but when he looked to his side he noticed his companion was gone.

Akane began climbing up the tree and Law followed behind, leaving Bepo on the ground because his paws were too big. The metal rungs were slim and were obviously meant for her small feet and not his long pointed boots. He was watching where every limb went rather than watching her hike up like a lemur and noticed she was already on the sniper platform when he was half way up.

She looked down at him from her perch, her long black hair framing her face. She moved out of the way when he finally made it up, stepping onto the platform. The tree covered his vision and he crouched down like Akane did in order to see the sea of trees below them.

"Well, Mama had her mansion where her crew stayed," she said, counting on her fingers," then she kept the ship here in a private dock, and then this is where Nanami is."

Law noticed how quietly she mentioned the last 'treasure'. "Who's Nanami?"

She put her hair behind her ear, swallowing. "She was the first mate."

"What happened to her?" he asked, leaning back on the tree trunk while she rested back on her arms.

"She was shot," Akane said slowly, trying to choose the right words. She laughed slightly as she said," It's so weird to talk about her this openly when on the ship we could never mention her name."

"Why not?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"She was Mama's daughter."

He noticed how heavily she said "was". "Did you know her?"

"No, but through the crew you did. I was one of the last people to join before Mama said she wouldn't accept anymore, but just how my crewmates told stories and talked about her... it was as if she never died. We never got another first mate, so technically Harper is forever second mate because no one can take Nanami's place. See that tower over there?" she said pointing to a tall gray spiral in the distance."That's the crew's cemetery; her mausoleum is on the top floor."

"Does anyone go all the way up there?" he asked, her sadness for a person she never knew confusing and humbling to him all at the same time.

"Outside of Mama, no. The most traps are around that area so no one would rob the graves or look for treasure. I took one post out there with Miya and it freaked me out," she said with a shudder, lying on her stomach and looking out at the view below.

Law followed suit, his long legs almost allowing his boots to touch the tree trunk. "Isn't that a problem if you're a doctor and you don't like being around dead bodies?"

She waved her hand to dismiss his teasing as she said," It wasn't like that, it was whenever Miya got scared she would sing a song; the problem was she would sing these shanties that chilled me right to the bone."

"Like what? _Row, row, row your boat?_" he asked dryly and she nudged him with her shoulder and huffed.

"No, like _Blood Red Roses, Pirates Life for Me,_ hell, she probably could make _Row, row, row, your boat_ sound scary!" she said, resting her chin on her folded arms. "It was just her voice echoing off the trees and watching the misty ground for any robbers that spooked me. You have to admit, Captain: that _doesn't_ sound too pleasant."

He smiled and said," I wouldn't know since I'm not afraid of anything."

She was going to make a retort when her body froze, eyes wide. Law followed her line of vision and saw a tall red crow's nest stick above the green trees with a pirate flag whipping in the wind. The Jolly Rodger was a skull with two knives going through its neck. Akane stood and began to climb up the tree further.

"Miss Akane, where are you going?" Law asked, following her up a hidden ladder to another platform at the top of the tree.

She was rigging a belt onto her body that was attached to a cable above their heads. "I'm going to the ship of course."

He grabbed her arm, saying firmly," We have no idea if you're captain or crew is there; it could be a trap."

She walked to the edge of the platform. "Captain, she can't be here because there's no fog: she always casted a fog when she was on the island it would cover the entire forest floor. I want to get more of my weapons and possessions, nothing more. Please, trust me."

He let go of her arm and stepped back to lean against the tree trunk. He crossed his arms but his laid back smile returned in a smaller form, his gray eyes gazing into her brown ones. She rested her arms instead of gripping the line above her and let them rest at her sides.

He saw something click in her eyes, the cogs fitting together and spinning rapidly. Her eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm bringing you to the mansion of Captain Mama of the Cutthroat Pirates, I'm telling you about the traps that are stationed around here, I allowing you to step aboard the _Bloody _Mary and leave alive, and I showed you where the burial tower is while on one of the _secret_ sniper platforms, but you think I'm still going to _leave you_ if I find Mama? How could I _ever_ go back to that crew after I've told you, a _pirate captain_, about all of this? I've told you once and I'll tell you again, I'm not going anywhere, Captain Trafalgar and I don't know what I can give you to prove it!"

Her voice echoed, black crows ascending upward as they were scared out of their roosts. They were silent for a long while, trying to figure each other out while Bepo shuffled one hundred feet beneath them. His eyes were closed, considering her statement.

His eyes opened and he stood upright, his laid back smile more genuine than before. "I don't know how I'll take you up on that offer now, Miss Akane, but I will. So let's go." He walked to the edge of the platform and yelled down," Bepo, follow mine and Miss Akane's scent."

"What are you talking abou-!" she yelped when he launched himself at her and held on as they glided down the line from the platform and toward the _Bloody Mary_. Their stomachs sat in the bottom of their torso's like rocks as they flew over the trees.

"Let go of me when I tell you to," she called over the wind.

"Whatever you say, Nurse," he called back, her hair whipping in his face as he held onto her torso.

"Now!" she unhooked herself from the wire as Law let go, the two of them falling to earth at an alarming rate.

Law almost braced himself for his impending fall, but met a soft tarp to catch him. He bounced slightly before sitting up, searching for his companion.

"Miss Akane?" he asked, slowly standing. His weight tilted the cloth bed and sent him sliding down the front of it and onto the deck below, landing on his stomach.

"So much for catlike reflexes," she said, sitting on a barrel. He slowly got up while smiling tightly before pulling the front of her scarf over her mouth and eyes. He leaned against the railing beside her and looked out on the deck.

The blood red mahogany gleamed in afternoon sun, the ship shifting beneath their feet while it rested on the small straight hidden in the woods. A stair case framed a door that Law presumed was the captain's quarters and the second floor on the deck was where the wheel was. The sails were rolled up and the anchor held the vessel in place. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her place the scarf around her neck, no longer obscuring her face.

"Let's go," she said, hopping down from the barrel and walking toward the door, him following behind quietly. He followed her down the empty hallway like a looming shadow in his black coat, looking at the framed wanted posters as they passed them. The plush rugs nearly swallowed their feet as they walked up to a door marked "2 & 4". She pushed open the door and walked inside, nearly shutting the door behind her before she heard her captain's footsteps, reminding her of his presence.

"You had your own room?" he asked, sitting on one of the two queen sized beds while she went to the armoire on the opposite wall and rooted through the clothing, pulling things on the floor.

The room was slightly larger than his quarters and the two canopy beds sat in the middle of the room, one dressed in red and the other in green. The room was oddly symmetrical outside of differing colors and messed up comforters.

"Yeah, first tier had more than its fair share of perks, Captain," she said, sitting beside him with a small chest sitting in her lap. He watched as she flipped the brass latch and opened an empty box.

"Looks like someone beat you to your jewelry," he said, but she hooked her finger beneath the red velvet to reveal a false bottom glittering with gold and silver.

"I put this false bottom in because being on a female exclusive ship means we 'borrow' each other's clothes and jewelry constantly. I could pawn these for a good price, eh?" she asked, slipping a ruby ring on her finger.

"I don't know what you would buy if your arsenal is here," he said, watching her pull a suitcase from beneath her bed and threw the box in along with clothing.

Law watched her for a while before leaning back on to the bed, staring at the wooden ceiling when he noticed a phrase carved into the ceiling: _Ego perdidi ex duabus urbibus decora sunt. Et, grandiora, mea regna quidam habebat duos amnes, continentem. Desiderium, sed non casu._

"_I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster_," he translated, the familiar ancient text welcome on a doctor's tongue.

" _Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you mean to travel. None of these will bring disaster_," Akane quoted back , setting the suitcase on the bed next to his hip. "It's part of a poem I picked up in-between medical texts. Sometimes I couldn't sleep at night so I finally broke down and carved it into the wood."

"It really puts the 'mel' in 'melancholy'," he said quietly, sitting up when he heard her open the door. He took the suitcase in the opposite hand of his nodachi and followed her down the hall and down the winding staircase to the bottom floor of the ship. There must have been three floors below the deck until they found the weaponry.

The entire floor was reserved for punching bags, swords, guns, knives, cannons, anything that Law could imagine killing someone with was there covering each wall. She made a beeline for the arsenal, strapping a holster that crossed over her body like suspenders before loading on two shot guns with axes at the end.

"I've never seen a shot gun like that," he commented and she turned around grinning with a belt of rounds around her waist.

"It's custom; beautiful, huh? I love flintlocks, but shotguns are the only gun that have that..._pop_ to them, you know? It's like the difference between a knife and a sword," she said motioning to his nodachi. He nodded and watched as she packed smaller pistols and rounds into her suitcase.

When she zipped up her suitcase, he asked," Is that all?"

"We can grab some maps from Mama's quarters, if you want them," she said, but was surprised when he waved his hand dismissively.

"I'm already intruding enough on her privacy. Besides, a real pirate _makes _their own maps," he said, taking her suitcase and beginning to ascend the stairs with her behind them.

_Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkk_.

The two medics stopped dead in their tracks listening above them.

"Is that Bepo?" Akane mouthed.

Footsteps hailed above their heads, signaling more than one. She hopped on the railing and slid down it, hopping down and to the opposite wall.

"Are they your crewmates?" he asked quietly, following to the opposite wall.

"No, there's too many and that means they aren't with us either," she said, feeling the blank wall for something. She stuck her finger into the hole of the floor board and pushed down on something. The wooden panel swung open and two piled inside the pitch black, narrow hallway with her leading him with her grip nearly cutting off circulation in his wrist.

"Where are we going?" he asked and right before the curve in the wall she stopped before a wall, feeling her hand around the front of her face before slowly siding open a slot and sticking her eyes through.

She looked through a while before pulling Law forward and pressing herself tight against the opposite wall so he could look through. He realized he was looking into the hallway with the wanted posters through the _eyes of a wanted poster_. Shirtless men in black pants walked down the hallways, carrying pistols and swords while looking for treasure.

"Let's do a clean sweep for any treasure, men, before we make this ship scream..._Bloody_ murder."

"Damn it, Ted, that was terrible!"

Law couldn't hear the rest of their bickering since Akane pulled him down the hallway further, going up a ramp of sorts that wrapped upwards.

"We're going a better view point of what's happening," she whispered, still holding onto his wrist tightly. He felt her heart beat hammering into his wrist, her body not concealing her distress.

They finally reached the peak of the winding hill and stopped before another panel in the wall, a peephole allowing a tiny beam of light. She looked through the peephole. "There's one person outside the door."

He heard her turn to him in the darkness, letting go of his wrist. He felt his eyes on her, despite being unable to see her.

"Captain, I'm going to get rid of him, I need you to stay here for now," she said as quietly as she could.

"Miss Akane, I can he-"

"I know you're going to help me," she interrupted, putting a hand against his chest to silence him. "But we need to be as stealthy as possible for right now and no offense, but a giant blue dome doesn't exactly scream conspicuous."

"Alright, _now _I'm curious. Proceed, Nurse," he said and she pushed him lightly before he heard the click of a flintlock, posed and ready.

She walked to the door and slithered out, the flash of light Law could see her body crouched and silent. He walked to the peephole and looked through it watching as she hugged her body to the long column of the crow's nest, the shirtless man oblivious to her presence on the other side.

She crouched again and slinked around to the left of the wooden column, posed to strike as the man walked to the right. Law saw the man whistling, unaware of what was going to happen, a young woman his silent shadow. Akane sprung up like a snake and threw her forearm his neck and kicked the back of his knees. He struggled for only moments until she grabbed his face with her free arm, and she snapped his neck around the other way, facing Law.

Blood escaped the mouth as the man died. She dragged the body to the other side and the column obscured Law's vision as to what she was doing as she unsheathed the man's sword. He quietly stepped out onto the crow's nest, crouching beneath the bottom half in order to not be seen as he saw his nurse do moments before.

When he reached the other side, he saw her looking through the binoculars from around the man's neck; the dead man sat propped up as if he was slouched over with his sword up his rectum to keep him in place.

She crouched back below the hiding place taking her suitcase from Law's hands.

"How many of them are there?"

She assembled a portable sniper and reloaded it generously.

"Too many."

She strapped two more guns to her legs in a garter, now having seven total guns on her person (two on her back, two on her hips, two on her legs, one in her bra).

"What's our plan of action?" he asked, unsheathing his nodachi.

She smiled cruelly, turning to him. "Do you want to see a magic trick, Doctor?"

Akane propped the sniper rifle onto the edge of the wooden railing, pointing down to the crowded deck below.

"I'm going to make all of these men _disappear_."


	10. X: Pugna Coepit

"You don't need a scope, do you?" Law asked as she began aiming the barrel down below. Akane searched for someone that screamed "authority" or "obvious target". She found one in a man in similar apparel as the rest of the pirates, except for a ridiculous fruit hat.

"You can see the lens reflect so I don't use it, but it helps me aim at people that do use the scope," she said and finally lined up her shot. "Are you prepared for all hell to break lose?"

"I _am_ the 'Surgeon of Death'," he said smirking, waiting for her shot to declare war.

**"SURGEON OF DEATH" TRAFALGAR LAW AND "NOIR NURSE" KOUSA AKANE VS THE PANDAMONIUM PIRATES**

The bullet flew out of the gun with a muffled _pop_ thanks to the silencer and went straight through the heart of the third mate of the Pandemic Pirates; his exposed chest allowed for his crewmates to watch in horror as his pale torso exploded into bright red.

Akane continued to shoot down below while her captain watched posed and ready. He wasn't used to someone else conducting his means of battle, but he was on _her_ territory and she knew it better than he did.

She was lost in her rhythm of reloading, aiming, and shooting, she didn't notice her targets were pointing up at the crow's nest.

"Miss Akane, can you do me a favor?" he asked, pulling off his coat.

She turned to him, gun poised for action.

"Try not to shoot me." With that, Law strung his coat over the ropes and slid down to deck. As he unsheathed his nodachi, Akane rapidly shot at anyone trying to attack him from behind. He began swinging his long blade at anyone in reach, the sharp edge spilling blood onto the deck.

"Room," he said, the blue dome trapping the fifty men on deck. "Shambles."

He hacked and slashed through the multiple body parts, separating them from their torsos and allowing the bits to float around him like a macabre mobile. He turned to check on Akane who was shooting at the floating torsos with guns attached to their hips, unaware of the ten men climbing the ropes to the crow's nest.

Law almost dropped his nodachi in concentration as he shifted the room over to cover the ropes of the crow's nest. He clenched his tattooed hand into a fist and the men fell off the ropes dead like flies.

He casted the floating body parts into the straight, allowing them to perish or be shot by Akane from above. His room disappeared and his body shifted to face the ajar door, waiting for anyone else. He slowly inched forward, his blade in front of his body as he made his way down the hall and continued to hear Akane shooting at the torsos or heads of the pirates bobbing on the water.

He was thankful for the carpet as it swallowed the sound of his footsteps. He pressed his ears to the closed doors, listening for any sounds. It was only then he realized the shots from the crow's nests have long stopped ringing and that realization was quickly followed by hearing gunfire from the weaponry down below.

Law raced down the steps and heard the thunder of footsteps behind him when pirates scouring the other floors noticed his bright yellow hoody and began pursuing him. He slid down the railing as Akane did before and saw her having a shoot out with nine others from behind a table. They quickly noticed Law and before they could fire, he casted a room and crushed their hearts before ducking behind the table with his nurse.

"You can do that?" she yelled over her shotgun mowing down the new comers, quickly reloading after each shot. The remaining forty decided to storm the table barricade at the same time, despite being injured.

"Room," Law said, throwing the table at the front line.

"Sham-" he stopped when he felt a weight on his wrist. His "room" shattered and by the sudden nausea washing over him, he pieced together it was seastone.

"Not so tough now, are you Trafalga-" the jeer was cut short when Law forced his nodachi straight through the man's heart.

"Don't move so much! I'm trying to aim!" he looked and saw Akane now connected to him.

"How did we not notice someone from behind?" he asked, continuing to slash at anyone coming close to them, the two medics back to back.

"Apparently it doesn't take a genius to hide in a suit of armor," she replied, realizing she couldn't reload her shotgun with only one hand and instead used the axe part of it to hack people's heads off. "Have any ideas, Captain?"

He sliced a man's arms off, picking up the gun with his index finger and handing it off to her cuffed hand. "Search and destroy."

She smiled as dropped her shot gun and began shooting with the magnum, draining it of its bullets and tossing it before reaching down her boiler suit for her pocket pistol. "Sounds good to me."

The seastone may have weakened them, but their skills were still intact. The two became yin and yang, her white boiler suit a stark contrast to his yellow hoody.

"One of them must have the key, but they all appear to have handcuffs," Law commented after a head rolled past his feet with the torso landing nearby.

"Don't you remember the guy who cuffed us?" she asked, veering them to the right to avoid an axe. She kicked the man in the crotch with her steel toed boot and took the axe from him to save her bullets.

"No, the number of people we've killed in the last twenty minutes are starting to blur together," he said and felt his wrist tug back as Akane made a run for the wall, the remaining twenty pirates swarming them.

"It's time to end this, I'm almost out of ammo; cover me," she said and began pulling swords and machetes off the wall with one hand.

He nodded and attacked more furiously now that they were cornered and he was the only left to fight. His heart raced inside his ribcage, but he wasn't afraid; he knew whatever she was doing wouldn't put them in danger.

The blows were coming faster and harder the more he fought them and there was at least fifteen left. He ducked to avoid a gunshot to the face. "Miss Akane, are you almost finished?"

"Just about." Akane shot at a target on the ceiling, which Law hadn't noticed before, and he realized that there were blood covered swords pointing downwards. "Run!"

They charged towards the staircase, their legs synched and adrenaline pumping their blood through their bodies, spurring them across the room in nearly five bounds thanks to her captain's long legs. She pressed herself to the floor onto her back and he was forced to do the same. Law felt himself ready to attack with the men running toward them in their defenseless position, when the trap sprung.

The swords from the ceiling came crashing down onto the pirates, killing them all except for Law and Akane, who had the pleasure of seeing the bloody, sharp tips centimeters from their noses. He let go of the breath he was holding, his Jolly Rodger expanding and deflating. Law carefully turned his head to look at his companion.

"I have a feeling you've done this before."

She laughed as the swords began rising back into the ceiling. "You kind of get used to it."

They rose and put their weapons back into their holsters or sheaths before heading up the winding staircase before Akane stopped midway and turned to Law. "Is my suitcase still in the crow's nest?"

He nodded and the two headed toward the opposite wall where the secret passage way was, their boots soaked in the pools of blood. The rustic smell clung to their noses as much as it stained their clothing.

"Wait," he said, reaching down and pocketing a man's keys," we still need to find the key to our cuffs."

"Oh, right," she said, allowing him to pull her to the other bleeding bodies to find them. "I guess I'm so used to being handcuffed that I forgot it was there."

He looked up at her, the bill of his hat obscuring his eyes before continuing to root through the bodies and pocketing any wallets and keys into the pouch of his hoody. "I presume you've been captured a lot?"

She put her hair behind her ear before saying," No, my parents were working on some sort of project that had to do with seastone so they used it on me a lot."

"I was about to say it doesn't seem to bother you too terribly," he said, rising and heading toward the panel in front of the secret passage way.

She nodded once before proceeding to lead them into the hallway.

"Did you recognize that crew at all, Captain?" she asked as they began heading down the narrow hallway of the dark passage way once more.

"No, one of them had 'Pandamonium' tattooed across his chest, so I'll presume that's who they are. By their uniform and Jolly Rodger alone, I've never heard of them. They obviously aren't intelligent if they just assume they can waltz onto the _Bloody Mary_ and nothing bad will come of it," he said as he was lead forward. She passed by the wanted posted hallway and continued up the ramp.

"Yeah and their bounty can't be above the thousands if two pirates _handcuffed_ together just killed them," she said with a snort and the climbed up the ramp once again.

"That probably lends back into them not being too bright; they had absolutely _no idea_ who they were dealing with and we took full advantage. Are you hurt at all?" he asked, his doctoral instincts taking over for a moment.

"I'm fine, how about you?" she answered, pushing open the door to the crow's nest and placing all the keys and wallets into the suitcase with him.

"Fine, fine..." he trailed off when he noticed two white feet sticking out of an overturned barrel down on the deck below. "Bepo! It's alright, they're gone now!"

"Bepo's here?" she asked, looking around on the deck.

"Yes, he was hiding in a barrel," he said and as the words left his mouth, the barrel stood straight up and only the bottom half of his orange and white body was visible. "And now he's _stuck _in the barrel."

"Aw, the poor thing!" Akane said, climbing onto the railing with her suitcase in hand.

"I guess we should go help him," he said, smiling as he hopped onto the railing as well. The two used the chains connecting the handcuffs as a way to zip line down to the bottom and help the bear. "Hold on, Bepo, we're going to get you out as soon as we get these handcuffs off."

The barrel stopped wandering around. "Handcuffs?! Captain, why do you smell like blood?"

"We had to get rid of them somehow," Akane said, setting the suitcase on the deck, the blood drying onto the mahogany. The two medics rooted through the keys and began trying each one on the ring and threw the duds over the railing and into the water.

Bepo sat down beside where he presumed they were and asked," How many of them were there?"

"I'd say at least a hundred; they weren't like the fighter's we've seen though since we got off without a scratch on us," Law said, smirking slightly at the contrast the green seastone had to the blood on his hands and forearms. "Did they see you at all, Bepo?"

The barrel twisted side to side as the bear shook his head. "No! I smelled them from miles away and then I heard a bunch of gunshots so I snuck in to get a closer look and no one was on the deck. I was going to look for you until I heard more gunshots and fighting so I hid."

"In a barrel that is roughly a third of your size?" Law finished, glancing up at the barrel while he and Akane continued to search for keys. "You should be more careful next time, Bepo: you stick out enough in a crowd, even more so in a fight."

"Sorry," he said deflated, the barrel bending forward.

She patted his large white foot and gave it a squeeze. "You don't need to be sorry, I'm just glad those goons didn't spot you."

Law glanced up from trying one of the last key rings, seeing her smile reassuringly to the barrel even if he couldn't see it. He smiled and shook his head, inserting the key and hearing a satisfying _click_. The handcuffs both opened at the same time, the pirates rubbing their wrists before tossing the keys and cuffs into the ocean. "It's always the last one, isn't it, Miss Akane?"

"You're right about that, Captain," she said standing and rotating her shoulder stiff from having her arm connected to his for so long.

He rose and casted a room around Bepo, but Akane couldn't notice how weak and small the room was. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, his hand shaking slightly.

"Did the seastone take a lot out of you?" she asked, leaning against the railing behind them.

The screws of the barrel slowly began loosening and falling onto wood of the ship one at a time. "It just takes a while for me to regain strength."

"Here." She grabbed his free forearm and he felt a familiar tingling shoot through his body, similar to when they first met, but it felt as if he was shocked.

The screws clattered to the barrel at once, followed by the metal bands falling and the wood splitting around Bepo like flower petals. She let go abruptly and the electricity stopped. Law looked behind him to see her breathing shallowly and lying on her side.

He quickly knelt down beside her and rolled her onto her back and he immediately notice her olive skin had turned a ghostly shade of white. "Miss Akane, what did you do?"

"I was just... giving you a boost, but that means I have to accelerate your nervous system and pump adrenaline in you more so than if you were...if you were being shot at," she said breathlessly. "The only problem is, it hurts me more than it hurts you."

"You've done this before?" he asked, unzipping the boiler suit to allow her body to cool down from being overheated. He saw red claw marks across her chest and reached beneath his hoody to feel the scars to find they felt as if they were a month old.

"Yeah... I didn't know how I did it at first," she said and he lifted her up in his arms with his long coat acting as a blanket after telling Bepo to grab the suitcase and boiler suit. They walked down the plank the Pandamonium Pirates left and they began walking along the beach. "I just remember that Mama was stabbed through the stomach once; I saw her go down and I ran over and tried to help her by clogging the blood... all the sudden I had the wound."

He let her ramble as he found a shady spot in the woods where he could set her down. The blood seeped around the wound, but it wasn't as deep as his was; it looked more like a cat scratch. He pulled a towel out of his coat pocket and compressed it as she continued to ramble," I knew I would die if I kept the wound, I mean Mama would have died if I didn't do something so I just grabbed onto someone and then they just... died. I blacked out after the first time I did it and when I woke up, Mama said I killed the ship's doctor."

He felt her chest press up against his palm as she let out a bark of a laugh. "So, I replaced the old doctor and that's how I made it to the first tier... I only split your wound in half though, Doctor, so we're both going to be fine."

Law glanced down at her face, her pupils not as dilated as before and her pulse not jumping out of her rib cage. He lifted the towel when he was sure the blood was dried and dipped the clean end into the fresh water before cleaning off the dried blood plastered to her chest, neck, and face.

"Regardless, Nurse," he said, the cold water causing goose bumps to raise up her arms and legs. "Promise me you won't do that again. I don't want you replacing me."

Akane sat up and beamed at him, laughing at the notion. "Why would I want to be a crummy _doctor_ when I can be the gorgeous _nurse_?"

He chuckled and tucked the towel back into his pocket before slipping the coat onto her shoulders and the two stood. Bepo handed Akane her suitcase, asking," Are we still going to the mansion?"

"If they tried to raid the ship, they probably went through the mansion; there's nothing there for us, so we might as well go back to the sub, right?" she asked and Law nodded.

He reached into his jeans pocket to check the log pose. His eyebrows furrowed as he commented," Well, that can't be right."

"What?" she asked, trying to look at the log pose.

"It's already set, but it hasn't been five days," he said, staring at it for a while longer before pocketing it. "I guess stranger things have happened. Miss Akane, can you call Shachi, Jean, and Penguin to tell them of our change of plans?"

She nodded and pulled the transponder snail out of his jacket pocket and sent them a message.

_"Hey, guys, it's Akane. The captain and Bepo are fine, actually we're all walking back to the sub since we ran into some pirates and we think the mansion might be occupied or empty... so why bother, right? Anyway, the log pose set so as soon as we all make it back we can make our way to the next island...Hello? Guys? Are you there?" _

Penguin woke to hearing his pocket talking to him and he reached down groggily and said into the pink transponder snail," What about pirates?"

_"There was like a hundred of them, but it's fine now. How far did you guys make it?"_

"Yeah, we're...um... we're kind of stuck if you want to help us."

_"Stuck?"_ It was his captain's voice now. _"Did you fall into a trap?"_

"How did you know that?" Penguin asked as Jean and Shachi started to be roused from their sleep.

_"I _do_ have an expert of the Cutthroat Pirates with me, Penguin. Is anyone hurt?"_

"Our expert slept with the captain and look how far that got us," Shachi said, but coughed when Jean kicked him in the stomach. Penguin pushed his friend's face away from the snail.

_"We'll stop by the sub and head your way_," Law said and the pink snail went back to sleep, signaling the end of the phone call.

Shachi's stomach growled loudly, causing the redhead to grip his sides. "Ugh, I don't know how long I can make it."

"The average person can go three days without food," Jean said, rising and looking up at the afternoon sun.

"Yeah, but we're anything _but_ average," he whined, begrudgingly rising to stretch.

"Do you think we can try to climb on each other's shoulders again to get out? I mean, at least it's not dusk like when we tried it the first time," Penguin said.

Jean crouched on the dirt floor of the pit, but before Shachi could climb onto his great back, he hooked his large hands beneath Shachi's arms and tossed him over the side and up on the solid ground.

"Jean! You've been holding back on us the whole time?" Shachi called, looking down at the two. Penguin was launched straight at his face shortly after , landing on him heavily.

"I just thought of it a moment ago: can you go get a rope or ladder from the sub?" he called up. Shachi and Penguin nodded and began walking into the woods.

_"__My clothes are all in pawn. __Go down you blood red roses, go down."_

Their booted feet stopped, rooted into the soft earth and listening to the song tear through the forest. Jean climbed out of the pit like an ape before running toward the source, Shachi and Penguin at his heels.

"_And it's mighty draughty around Cape Horn. __Go down you blood red roses, go down." _

Shachi and Penguin had no idea what came over them or why their feet were storming through the woods as if they've walked it millions of times before. A sense of desperation washed over them like a tidal wave, pulsing through them as they listened to the song. Little did they know that this feeling was all too familiar to Jean.

_"Oh, you pinks and posies_. _Go down you blood red roses, go down."_

The trees began to thin as they went deeper and deeper through the woods before stepping into a clearing. A cobble stone path lead to a large, stone gray tower with graves on either side of the path. An freshly dug hole in the earth was closer to the large monument.

_"__Oh it's one more pull and that will do__. __For we're the bullies to kick her through."_

_Fwip._

"Agh!" Jean cried as an arrow lodged itself in his shoulder. The spell of the song shattered like glass on the Heart Pirates and Jean looked up at the sniper tower.

"Jean!" Penguin and Shachi cried, going to aid their crewmate when three more arrows rained down on them. Jean tore the arrow out, crushing it with his fingers.

The arrows stopped.

Jean began bounding toward the tree where the sniper platform was, intending to climb it. He began scaling the tree like a bear, pure rage driving him. Shachi and Penguin scrambled to take cover behind the graves, waiting for more arrows.

He made it to the platform in no time, but found it to be deserted except for a canteen and some broken arrows. He made his slow climb back down the tree, pocketing the feathered ends of the arrows.

A flash of white flying across the trees piqued Penguin's interests.

"Shachi, what's that up the-?" he stopped when he felt something hard peck at his head. He turned to his right and found he was face to face with the large bird again.

"What's that up whe- Penguin, why are you beating up an ostrich?!" Shachi exclaimed rising from his hiding spot to where his friend and the bird where wrestling on the ground, the ostrich trying to peck his eyes out while he tried to wring its long neck.

"No time to explain, just help me!" Penguin grunted, throwing the bird off of himself.

"Wah!" the bird shrieked loudly, rolling onto its long legs and began running away at a blinding speed.

The two raced after it, weaving in and out of graves to try to capture it. Its long black and white feathers hung around its round body and bounced as it ran; the long legs and feet stirred up dust as it lead them around the graves.

It looked up once and then suddenly changed its direction with its fanlike wings.

Shachi and Penguin cursed, the bird wearing on their stamina the more they chased it. The bird made one final leap and then disappeared in the woods. They stopped short of falling into the freshly dug grave, skidding to a stop.

"Damn it!" Penguin yelled, throwing his hat on the ground. Shachi ignored his friend while trying to catch his breath and glanced at the grave they almost fell into.

"Penguin," he said trying to get his friend's attention.

"We were so close! That stupid thing could have been on my dinner plate!" he exclaimed, stomping on his hat.

"Pen."

"Why did it have to be so fast? I could run like that too if I was just a ball of feathers and legs!"

"Pengu-"

"Seriously, what the hell is tha-"

"Penguin!"

Penguin glanced at his friend and saw where he was pointing. He walked over and crouched beside him to get a better look at the grave.

**KOUSA "NOIR NURSE" AKANE: ****DOCTOR, MARKSWOMAN, PLASTIC SURGEON TO ALL**

"So what, Shachi: Akane told me that when you join the crew you get a headstone since so many of them die," he said, ignoring the part where it had been crossed out angrily with a chisel.

"Look at the bottom," Shachi said hollowly.

Penguin looked closer to the block writing engraved, moving the grass out of the way to read it fully.

**KOUSA "NOIR NURSE" AKANE: TRAITOR **

Penguin swallowed when he saw the Cutthroats Jolly Rodger had been revised to look more like the Heart Pirates.

"Should we tell, Captain?" Penguin asked, rising to his feet with Shachi as they began walking down the cobble stone path.

"I don't know... Jean!" He called to the passing man. "Should we tell Captain about Akane's head stone?"

Jean didn't answer them as he continued to walk toward the tower. He tried to open the front door to find it locked so he ripped it off its hinges so he could step inside.

"Jean?" Shachi called, though his muscles told him to not follow the large man.

For the first time in ten years, Jean was going to visit Nanami.


	11. XI:Ignis Anulum

The sub was eerily quiet as Law walked up the stairs and into the kitchen. His crew had long gone to sleep, all agreeing that it was better to leave the island with their lives than press their luck. He wasn't tired and decided to make a cup of coffee before reading Akane's book on the properties of herbs. He was surprised to find Jean in the kitchen brewing coffee.

"Good evening, Captain," he said without turning his back.

Law sat down at the small wooden table they had in the kitchen. "Jean."

"Did Shachi make any repairs on the sub before we left?" Jean asked, pouring the dark liquid into two mugs, setting one before his captain and sitting down across from him.

"No, is there something wrong?" he asked, bringing cup to his mouth.

"That's the odd part: it's running _better than ever_. I've never seen it run so smoothly; we may make it to Zanni in only two days," the large man said, stirring some milk in to relieve the bitterness.

"What's Zanni like?"

"It's a fall island and there's a month long festival going on right now. It should be pretty relaxed," he explained, thinking of the current map he had of the island.

"Thank god," Law muttered into his coffee. He paused before sipping it, his gray eyes glancing up at Jean beneath the brim of his old fur hat."On the _Bloody Mary_, Miss Akane and I had to fight the Pandamonium Pirates, do you know who they are?"

"No, I've never heard of them. How many were there?" he asked, finishing his coffee and rose to refill his cup.

"A hundred."

"You and Akane got rid of all of them?" he asked, though he wasn't surprised. He had seen his captain fight before and knew he was capable of taking care of multiple people at once and Akane hold her own as well, but the sheer number should have left a mark on at least one of the medics. "Wait, why were you on the _Bloody Mary_?"

"Miss Akane wanted to gather some of her belongings," he said shortly.

"And the ship was just there in the middle of the open?"

His dark rimmed eyes rolled up to look at his navigator. "Yes, she insisted on going because of that reason."

Jean casted his dark eyes down into his fresh cup of coffee before drinking it; the steam swirled upward, warming his face like a familiar presence.

"How's your shoulder?"

He glanced at his bandaged shoulder where the arrow had pierced it. "It's fine; Akane's paste eased the swelling nicely."

"Good, how exactly did you get that injury again?" Law asked, washing his cup in the sink.

He paused for a moment, wondering how to proceed. "We heard... a voice and we were just possessed. We ran out to where the singing was and were shot at."

"Singing? Was it some kind of Devil Fruit?" he asked, adjusting his hat as they headed to the control room next door.

"Miya, the Cutthroat's musician, first tier. She has a Devil Fruit called the Si-Si Fruit; it allows her voice to drive Devil Fruit users away from her, but non users toward her," Jean explained, sitting down in his chair before taking the sub off auto pilot."According to Mama, it was useful because she could get people closer when she shot at them."

"So a Cutthroat Pirate just happens to shoot at my crew while Miss Akane is here, but don't attack her?" he asked, leaning back on the table.

"They think she's betrayed them."

Law looked up. "They?"

"Whoever is left of that crew thinks Akane abandoned them by joining us, Captain. For whatever reason, they didn't attack her, but it's better we left that island before they could," he explained, watching the dark ocean be pierced by the two headlights.

"It's not as if she had a choice in joining, did she...," the captain said to himself, wandering out of the control room.

"Captain."

Law glanced over his shoulder in the door way.

"If she wanted to leave, you know she would have died trying," Jean said, not looking away from his duties. He could imagine his captain nodding and walking to the medical bay to read a book or practice dissecting something.

Though Law was mysterious in his stoic mannerisms, he was _predictable_. His mask of cool politeness, the way he fought, the way the corner of his mouth would twitch when he was angry were all things that flew under the rest of his crew's radar simply because they _adored _him. Even the ones that were lost to the women of Amazon Lily admired his leadership and intelligence, so much so they would miss any cracks the mask had to offer. Shachi and Penguin had described their loyalty in a muddled mess of "he's so cool!" and "he can do anything!"

Bepo's relationship was different, acting more of as an old friend since the two had known each other longer than anyone, but the bear deeply admired him like his crew mates; even Jean himself couldn't help but see his captain, almost two decades younger than him, as a sort of hero that would emerge from old sea tales or legends.

Law sat at his desk with his black rimmed reading glasses perched on his nose. He was reading about the tecra root the mystery caller had suggested Akane make for him and how he could use it to detect Caesar Clown's SAD drug. He knew it would take more than slathering paste on trees to track the gaseous man down, but it was a start. His eyes trailed up over the top of the book and above the medical bay's door where the clock ticked away quietly.

"It's 2:30 in the morning, Captain, shouldn't you be asleep?"

He looked down from the clock to see Akane standing in the doorway with a red silk robe tied around her waist tightly and her jewelry box in her hand. She walked over and sat down on the edge of his desk while he set the book aside, taking off his reading glasses.

"I could ask the same of you, Miss Akane."

She shrugged, setting the box beside her hip. "I just couldn't sleep tonight; besides, I need to figure out how much I'm going to pawn this jewelry for when we get to the next island."

She opened the wooden lid and began sorting the jewelry into piles. A ballerina sat posed in the center of the box, but twirled brokenly around to no music. Law picked up a ring that was around the ballerina's slim waist and rolled it around his thumb and index finger. It was gold with a large diamond center and rubies circling it.

"Who's the lucky man?" he asked, smirking at her flustered expression when she saw the ring in his nimble fingers. She made a reach for it, but he moved it out of the way. "You can't expect me to ignore your past engagement, Nurse."

Akane rolled her eyes, as if the whole affair had been a waste of her time. "You know how I worked in that doctor's office to support my sisters? Well, Doctor Takahashi owned the whole building and hired me to be his personal secretary and eventually his nurse. He gave a lot of... _hands on_ experience, if you catch my drift."

She looked at her captain's face to see the jesting smirk had mellowed into a cool look of examination, as if she were a subject on his operating table. She tucked her hair behind her ear before she continued, feeling his eyes peeling back the layers and staring into her insides.

"After three months of him playing grab ass with me during surgery, he asked me to do house calls for a pay raise..."she checked to see if he was listening and his mouth twitched at the implications of her sentence, eyes closed. "Long story short, he gave me a ring so I could be a 'live in nurse'; I was going to marry him until Mama showed up."

He stated," You were going to marry a doctor at sixteen years old?"

"I wouldn't do it for me: it was for Nori. Hell, I would have killed the whole city if she told me to," she said, turning her body more to face him.

"Why?"

She paused, trying to put her feelings into words. The corners of her mouth lifted into a smile.

She recounted almost wistfully, "I would usually work twenty hour shifts in that ridiculous outfit I wore in my wanted posters. I would come home sometimes at three in the morning and not have enough energy to even make it to the couch in the living room, so I would just kick off my heels and slump against the door. Just before I was about to pull my hair out or collapse from exhaustion, Nori, would bring me a cup of tea and leftovers from the dinner I missed. That made it all worth it."

"I thought your sister was blind," he said, recalling her mentioning it while they walked around Aestus.

"She is; she learned how to use echolocation; you know, like what whales and dolphins do? It was expensive training, but my parents thought she was worth every dime and so do I," she said thoughtfully. He noted she didn't mention the other sister.

His eyes opened to look into hers, hers the color of the cooling coffee on his desk."Why would you keep this ring after all these years?"

"Because what I get back for this little ring will be worth so much more than what I did to earn it," she responded honestly.

He placed the ring back into her palm and closed her hand around it. "Your devotion to your siblings is admirable, Miss Akane, as well as your ability to make light of any situation."

Her smile returned with a flushed face at his observation as she said," I only make light of things that don't affect me now, but thank you, Doctor. That means a lot coming from you."

His laid back smile returned, leaning back in his chair," Why is that?"

"Well," she said, going to play with her hair but his hand prevented her too," even before you were my captain, I had some idea of who you were and the fact that you were the doctor of your crew as well was enough to keep your name on my radar. Now that I've been with you and your crew for nearly a month, I can see why your crew loves you so much."

"Please, tell me why I'm so great," he said with a wide smirk.

She huffed and listed with melodramatic exasperation," You're a good doctor and leader and swordsman and... you're just great at everything you try to do, you know? You can do no wrong."

He patted her hand and rose from his desk, putting the book away. "Do go on."

"Your ego would inflate so much that the walls would be painted with your insides," she said, pointing to the pristine white walls of the medical bay.

He chuckled lightly, the sound echoing in the large room and replied," Ego? I liked it better when you were complimenting my medical prowess."

"I don't want you getting sloppy, so I'll quit while I'm ahead," she quipped and was surprised when he leaned against the desk next to her.

"Now really, Miss Akane, why can't you sleep? As your doctor and captain, don't I have a right to know?" he asked, plopping his fur hat onto the skeleton.

Akane shrugged and asked," Would it be childish to say I had a nightmare?"

"Yes."

Her dark eyes narrowed at his smiling face.

She huffed and began to leave when he grabbed her silky red sleeve to pull her back in place. Law absentmindedly rubbed the smooth fabric between his slim fingers as he said," Now, now, Miss Akane, that rash behavior won't fix anything. As you said: 'I'm good at anything I try'."

She slipped out of his grip and sat in the large leather chair behind his desk, crossing her legs in the seat. He raised an eyebrow at her boldness, but settled into her usual spot on the desk.

"Okay, so I'm at my execution and they decided to hang me, but when they do I don't die; I just hang there for hours and hours until eventually they cut me down and throw me into a wooden coffin before tossing me out to sea. And I try to get out of the box, but the water is leaking and it begins to sink and-"

"You wake up," he finished.

"Yes! I've had this dream about being buried alive before. This is the first time it was drowning so it kind of makes it hard to sleep in a submarine, no?" she said.

"Is this why you're always up so late?" he asked, rising to go to his medicine cabinet in his bedroom. He figured if this was a reoccurring nightmare, a couple sleeping pills wouldn't hurt. He couldn't allow his nurse to suffer while he selfishly devoured the medicine for his own weak reasons, mostly because he ran out of books to read or the past started to leak into the corner of his mind.

"I don't know, I've been having this dream for so long it only bothers me once in a while. I mostly stay up late because at least I have someone to talk to," she called from his desk.

He paused in his search for sleeping pills, shutting the cabinet and pulling out the mortar and pestle .

Law returned to the medical bay, setting the materials down in front of her before saying," If you're going to stay up with me, we're going to work; show me how to make tecra root paste."


	12. XII: Et Fun Games

"Hey, Shachi, can you hand me that cutting board?" Akane asked, tossing her long black braid over her shoulder, accepting the wooden board.

The two cooked lunch for the crew while they waited for the island of Zanni to come in sight. A steak skillet currently was being prepared by them with Shachi in charge of making hash browns. The heat of the small kitchen was enough for them to shed their boiler suits for more casual clothing.

"So, have you ever been to Zanni?" he asked, pushing the shredded potatoes around in the hot skillet.

She sliced the steaks into neat cubes before cutting them further into strips. "I've actually never been this far out into the New World; since no other pirates have been this far out before, Mama would hang around the edge of the Grand Line so we could get supplies from other ships."

"Well isn't that... nice. I heard there's a carnival going on so maybe I'll win you something if you're good," he joked, laughing when she kicked his behind with her heel.

"Those games are all fixed you know," she said. Akane set the raw, neatly cut meat on the counter beside him so he could throw it into the pan.

"So? They're still fun to play; I thought you'd like them because of the shooting games," he said, the bleeding steaks slowly darkening in the pan.

"Yeah, that is true. Do you want me to win you a goldfish?" she asked, slicing oranges in half before cranking them on the juicer and into the glass pitcher.

"I can do fine on my own, Aka," he said, before he realized his mistake.

"Aka?"

Shachi looked over his shoulder before saying sheepishly," Sorry, I didn't know how that slipped in there; me and Penguin call you that all the time so-"

"My youngest sister, Nori, used to call me that all the time," Akane said, smiling slightly and watched the juice slide down the sides of the clear glass.

"Nori... what was the name of the other one again?" Shachi asked, resuming to cook the steak and hash browns.

"Kira." The insides of the oranges looked like the torn insides of an animal as the rolled down the counter near Shachi. "What were the names of the quintuplets?"

"Shig, Shinju, Shiori, Shizuka, Shizuko" Shachi recited in one breath.

"Wow, you're names all start with an 'sh'? I'm guessing it was quiet when your parents couldn't think of who to call," Akane replied, giving him her full attention and sitting on the counter.

"Nah, they called me Chi Chi for short."

The two continued to talk about their siblings all through their cooking, continuing to talk and laugh in the kitchen. When they saw their crew passing by the archway, they began gathering the food and setting it on the table.

Shachi asked quietly before they sat down," So, is it okay that I can call you Aka?"

Akane smiled as she replied," Sure, as long as I can call you Chi Chi."

He kicked her under the table as the Heart Pirates loaded their plates with food. Akane noticed that the seat at the head was empty.

"Where's Captain?"

None of them looked up from their plates, but Penguin swallowed his food so he could answer. "He's probably in the med bay; he usually doesn't eat with us unless we need to know something about the next island."

She nodded and took the empty plate to her right and put a portion of the steak hash browns on it before snagging a glass of orange juice. "I'll just drop this off then."

"Of course you will," Shachi muttered with a smirk.

"Huh?" The smirk fell off his face when she turned around.

"Make sure nothing spills," he said with a smile. She nodded and steadied the plate and glass in each of her hands.

Penguin elbowed him harshly. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Relax, Pen, she didn't hear me anyway?" he said, rubbing his tender ribs.

"What are you two talking about?" Jean asked, pausing in retrieving his second helping of the lunch.

"Nothing," the two said, returning to their meals. Their chewing slowed to a halt as the large man glared at them with his large dark eyes.

Shachi swallowed thickly before turning to Bepo. "Bepo, cover your ears."

"Why? I want to know what's going on!" the bear whined, tired of his crewmates treating him like a cub.

"Because you're going to tell Captain and we're going to be walking around with our feet up our asses!" Penguin exclaimed.

Bepo complied, saying loudly," Sorry."

Jean sighed at their antics, but leaned back in his chair while taking a drink of his orange juice.

Shachi rolled his eyes before turning back to Jean," So, me and Penguin have been talking and we've come to the conclusion that there's no way we deny it any longer: Captain and Aka are sleeping together and are hiding it to spare our feelings."

A spray of orange mist covered Penguin and Shachi.

Akane noticed the medical bay door was closed when she reached it. She set the food and drink on the ground and knocked on the door.

"Doctor? I have your food, can I come in?"

Silence.

She knocked again, but upon hearing no answer, she held the door open with her foot and picked up her captain's meal. When she slipped into the medical bay, she found it in a state of distress; the white floors were covered in green stains and his desk was littered with open books, the mortar and pestle in the center of it all.

She set the food onto his desk and took a sip of the orange juice before finding the door to his quarters ajar. She set the glass down and quietly walked to the door frame.

"Captain?" she whispered, knocking lightly on the frame. The room was dark given how deep they were in the ocean and the emergency lights lining the bottom of the walls casted a sort of dreamy blue glow to the walls; the shadows stretched to the ceiling, looming over the bed. Akane saw long legs clad in spotted jeans hanging over the edge of the bed, black socked feet nearly touching the floor.

"Captain?" she asked again, stepping into the room to see Law lying on his stomach sprawled across his bed. The Jolly Rodger tattoo on his back rose and fell with his breathing, his hoody and shoes thrown on a chair near the door. The sheets and blankets beneath him were in disarray and the pillows were either on the floor or surrounding his head like a barrier; Akane found this odd given he appeared to be out cold.

She quietly tiptoed over to his bedside, moving his nodachi away from his nightstand to lean against the opposite wall.

"Doctor?" she said quietly, waiting for a reaction. She gently shoved him, though he moved back into place like the tide. "Doctor?"

She slid a cold hand around his outstretched wrist hanging over the bed, pulling his tattooed arm. He continued to sleep soundly even as his seemingly lead-filled arm fell back onto the bed. She hastily rolled him onto his back, stepping out of the room before returning with a stethoscope. She placed the ear pieces in before plopping the stethoscope on his bare chest to hear his heart beat.

The sound thudded inside her ears pleasantly and she let out a sigh of relief when he flinched at the sudden coldness. Akane retracted the instrument and let it rest against her collarbone while she sat on the bed beside him.

"Well at least you're not comatose, Captain," she said, turning to look down at Law," but why won't you wake-"

She stopped when she looked directly across the bed to see a large cabinet with its drawers open. She rose and stepped over to it, her eyes scanning the vials and pill bottles for the source of her captain's sleep. Akane's days as a plastic surgeon showed her the numerous ways to knock someone out, but she usually put her patients to sleep with her Devil Fruit; whatever Law was using, she had seen it before. She closed the cabinet when she found no bottles open, but nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a crunching sound. She picked up her bare foot and saw blue powder smeared across the bottom.

She wiped her foot with her hand before sitting beside Law again, rooting through his nightstand for a flashlight. Akane used her free hand to open his mouth and pulled on his tongue, stained with the blue powder. She continued to check the back of his throat and felt his pulse through his neck.

"Mith Akanye, wa ah yu doung?" She released his tongue as if to get rid of the evidence, his pupils the size of pin points as he looked past the flash light to see his nurse's face.

"Just making sure you were still alive, Captain," she said carefully, placing the flash light back into the drawer. He caught her hand, a bluish tint still dusted onto her palm and fingertips.

"Playing detective too, I see," Law said, inspecting her hand. He brushed the caduceus with his fingers, tracing the black ink. It wasn't a tribal style like his was, but looked like it was done by an actual painter; he was guessing it probably took four hours given the detail.

She was frozen and chose to simply watch and react to him rather than talk her way out.

"You know, Miss Akane," he said, picking up his hat off his nightstand with his other hand," you have a funny way of catching me off guard; it seems you know more about me than I do you."

She shook her head, the braid behind her swinging like a pendulum. "That's not true; my life is an open book and I've never done anything wro-well, _too_ wrong."

She went to tuck a stray hair behind her ears when he snatched her other wrist mid action. "You do that when you're nervous, Miss Akane: do I make you nervous?"

His gray eyes burned holes through her skull. Akane shook her head again and said," You don't make me nervous, Captain; _no one_ makes me nervous, not even if I was standing in the face of death would I be ne-"

Law stopped her rambling by holding up her wrist, his thumb feeling blood pulse run beneath her skin as if a dam broke. "You're about to go into cardiac arrest; speaking of which, I've got a proposition for you."

She eyed him curiously, trying to read his poker face. "Last time you offered me a proposition, I ended up on your crew: is this another good one?"

He smiled easily before directing her to sit on the bed beside him, her wrists acting as the reigns. He recounted," Remember on Segre you said you were going to do something to prove you wouldn't betray me?"

Her eyes were casted down, trying to remember before they flicked back up. She jumped when he placed his palm on her chest. Over her Jolly Rodger. Over her heart.

"Here's your proposition: If you ever do anything to hurt this crew, I want your heart," he said, the pulse racing beneath his palm.

Akane swallowed and said with a small smile," I guess you mean in the literal meaning rather than metaphorically."

He shook his head with a smile. "Unfortunately no, Nurse."

"Captain, we've reached Zan...ni." The medics turned their heads to the door to see Penguin standing in the doorway with Shachi beside him, their jaws hitting the floor. No one could blame them: their shirtless captain had his hand on their nurse's bikinied chest and her hand in his, the sheets messed up beneath them.

"Good. Shachi, Penguin, tell Jean and Bepo it's okay to depart . We can relax today and get supplies tomorrow," Law said, making no motion to move from his position or show embarrassment; Akane's skin was hot beneath his palm from the flush moving down her neck and her chest.

"Okay... carry on," Shachi said, shutting the door behind them loudly and the pair heard their footsteps patter against the tile and up the stairs, eager to get away.

His grip on Akane loosened when she fell backward onto the bed, covering her face with her hands. Law got his breakfast from his desk and returned to his room; he leaned against the headrest of his bed, crossing his ankles on her stomach.

"Breakfast in bed consisting of mostly carbohydrates? Are you planning on another midmorning romp, Nurse?" he asked, smirking viciously at the deep red her face had taken. She grabbed a pillow and slapped it against his leg before putting it over her heated face.

"You can sleep on the couch with that attitude, Doctor," she said, her voice muffled by the pillow. He chuckled and resumed eating, taking a sip of his orange juice. He smiled at the lipstick stain on the rim.

Jean and Akane walked aimlessly around the midway of the carnival, the prizes eye catching and grinning at them as the strolled by. Games lined both sides of the cobblestone street, enticing people to spend their beil. Men on stilts and brightly colored outfits sold cotton candy, which Akane was currently munching on while Jean enjoyed his caramel popcorn.

"I've never been to a carnival, have you?" she asked, looking up at the tall man beside her. Hundreds of people walked past them, giving odd looks at the large man with the petite girl.

He gave a shrug. "Once. It came to my hometown and I went with Mama."

"You and Mama are from the same island?" she asked, nearly dropping her pink sugar floss.

"Of course; did you honestly think we've been this close of friends through a one night stand thirty years ago?" he asked and barked out a laugh at her incredulous expression.

"I don't know, it makes sense I guess," she said and grabbed his arm suddenly, pointing ahead. There was a mallet and platform with a bell at the top, begging to be wrung. The prizes were large to match the monumental size of the game, the one at the very top of the stand a large polar two thirds the size of Bepo. "Do you think you could win me that prize?"

Jean looked down at her and, with their vast height difference, she almost looked like a child compared to his large muscular frame. "I don't know, but I'll sure as hell try."

He smiled and made his way to the game, Akane trailing behind him. The bow tied man running the booth paled Jean stepped up, holding out a crumpled beli in his large hand.

"Just hit the top... sir and win a prize," the carnie said, and dove out of the way when reached for the mallet.

_Crack_. The mallet head broke with the force of Jean's swing and the bell rang sharply, echoing across the carnival. He handed the splintered stick of the mallet to the carnie before pointing to the polar bear. "I'll take that one."

The small man nodded fiercely, throwing the bear at them before scurrying away. Jean handed the large bear to Akane, who strapped it onto her back like a cape.

"Thanks, Jean! That was incredible!" she exclaimed as they walked further into the center of the carnival where the rest of the Heart Pirates were meeting; the base of the impressive ferris wheel was a pub with circus themed decor, but the pirates figured it was the only place they could get something not deep-fried and candy coated. They ditched their sweet treats as they entered the establishment.

Though the festival was loud with all its patrons laughing and chatting, it was even louder in the dimly lit, smoky bar. They found their captain sitting in the middle of a booth with Bepo, sipping his sake and surveying the room. The two slid in beside them; Jean on Bepo's right and Akane on Law's left with the bear sitting beside her right.

Law cocked an eyebrow at the stuffed animal. "It's nice to know that your allowance is being put to good use, Miss Akane."

"Hey, Jean was the one that won it for me; he even broke the mallet on the strong man game!" she said excitedly.

"It was nothing, Akane," Jean said, waving away her praise.

"Where exactly are you going to put that thing?" Law asked, nodding at her prize.

"In the medical bay, of course. It can be Bepo's backup," she said and the bear touched his chest with his paw.

"But I'm a real bear," he said deflated, bowing his head.

Akane was going to apologize when Shachi and Penguin filled in the rest of the table with Penguin setting a mason jar in the center of the table. Inside were two goldfish swimming aimlessly around, but kept running into the large, glassy faces of pirates.

"Captain! We won you these and named them after you!" Shachi said, tapping the glass.

Law leaned down, peering into the jar before asking," So they're both named Law?"

"No, that'd be so lame if they were named the same thing," Penguin said and pointed out each fish. "This one is Captain and the one with the lazy eye is Captain Jr."

"They both look the same to me," Bepo said, looking down the top of the bowl.

Shachi covered both sides of the mason jar, as if it were the fish's ears. "You can't say that about our captain!"

"Sorry."

"Penguin, can you get me another sake? The service here is terrible," Law asked, handing his empty glass to him before Akane intercepted it.

"No, let me," she said, grinning and rejecting any money her crewmembers offered them.

She slid out underneath the table and when she reappeared, her boiler suit was in her hands and she threw it at Shachi's face, strutting away in her boots and bikini. She pulled out her braid, letting the long waves fall over her Jolly Rodger as her white shorts swayed dramatically with her hips up to the bar. Akane hadn't seduced a bartender for drinks in almost two years, but she figured she could degrade herself a little for her crewmates with the old 'Cutthroat Charm'. She ignored the empty stool next to a man downing shots and instead leaned heavily over the black counter top, stepping onto the gold bar near her feet to give her cleavage some leverage.

"Excuse me," she said, drawing the attention of the clown serving drinks. His eyes immediately shot down to her breasts presses together with her forearms and mashed against the cold counter tops. "I was hoping I could get some drinks for me and my friends."

Her voice cooed into one ear covered with rainbow colored hair and out the other of the bartender. Her eyes were half lidded and the dim, smoky atmosphere of the bar added to her mystique. He pulled on his polka dotted bow tie and swallowed the hard lump in his throat.

"Anything in particular, m-m-miss?" he stammered and her coffee eyes rolled up as if thinking of something.

"I'll have four beers, two whiskeys, a glass of red wine and some sake," she rattled off, holding the empty glass out for him to take. He took the glass gingerly into his hands as if it were the Holy Grail and then set off to make the drinks.

Akane turned around with her back against the cool bar, giving a thumbs up to the crew.

"I knew a pretty thing like you wouldn't be drinking alone."

She turned her head to the right to see the man beside her had finished his shots and was now turned fully to her. He had a long emerald captain's coat over his bare chest and a five o'clock shadow.

"I'm enjoying dinner and drinks with my captain and crew," she said snippily. She wasn't normally this rude, but she had no intention of seducing anyone outside of the bartender.

"Oh really? If _I _was your captain, I would wouldn't let you parade around in something like that. Not that I'm complaining," he said and extended his hand. "Captain Calvin Juan."

Juan watched as her coldness melted away at the mention of his name, fluffing her hair and smiling coyly. She gave him her tattooed hand and said smoothly," Akane."

She giggled as he kissed it.

"Where the hell is Akane with our drinks? She went to go get them half an hour ago!" Shachi said, tapping his watch.

"At least she was able to order them right away; when I tried to get drinks before, that clown behind the counter wouldn't give me a second glance. The place is packed if you haven't noticed," Penguin said, sweeping a hand around the diners.

Law ignored their bickering completely and instead rested his bearded chin on his tattooed hands, fixated on something in front of him. Jean followed his line of vision and saw what his captain was looking at: Akane had seated herself at the bar now and was speaking with blonde in a long coat, leaning close and giggling when he whispered, what he presumed, sweet nothings into her ear. He noted that even when she touched the stranger's arm, his serene mask didn't crack, but the eyes behind it glared intensely.

Akane felt eyes bearing into the back of her head and turned her head sideways for a moment to see her captain glaring a hole into her head. She noticed her drinks were sweating condensation onto the tray. She turned back to Juan and sighed dramatically.

"My crew have been waiting long enough for their drinks," she said with a smile, picking up the black round tray.

"I'll be waiting," he said with a wink. She giggled again, but as she turned around her smile slid off her face and like sweat, rolling her eyes as she returned to the table. The crew took their drinks as she sat back down.

"You're not getting a tip," Shachi said, taking a swig from his beer.

"Yeah, what took you so long? We ordered without you so I hope you like pickled lamb heart," Penguin said, laughing into his mug at her puckered expression.

"I was selling the whole 'woe is me I forgot my wallet' shtick, so enjoy gentlemen," she said with a flourish of her hand, swirling her rich plum colored wine around in its glass.

"Thank you for the dinner theater, Miss Akane, but you must realize we're never paying for drinks again, right?" Law said smiling as he took a swig from his replenished sake.

"It was quite a show; I'm pretty sure half the guys here were ready to throw money at you," Penguin said and laughed with the crew at her flustered expression.

"I don't why I associate with you people," she muttered into her drink.

Shachi elbowed her, making her almost spit out her drink. "Hey now, no need to get all hot and bothered."

"I am going to shove those goldfish down your throat if you say one more word," she growled.

"You can't do that to Captain!" Penguin and he exclaimed, Penguin drawing the jar to his side of the table protectively.

"Did someone order a sex on the beach?"

The Heart Pirates looked up to a tall, curvy woman holding a tray of food in one arm and in the gradient drink in her other dark skinned hand.

Shachi found the bone going through her afro enchanting enough to say," Well, I can't speak for everyone else here, but I'd be happy to-"

"I bat for the other team," she cut in, Shachi flipping off a laughing Penguin before she continued," that man over there wanted to give it to a Akane?"

The crew leaned into the table to look past the waitress, directing their attention to Juan who was staring at Akane, his legs spread as he rested his chin on his arm.

"Ugh! I think I have herpes just by looking at that guy," Penguin gagged, digging into his steak as the waitress began setting down their food.

"Isn't that the man you were speaking with before?" Jean asked as he consumed his own steak in one bite. Akane offered a nod and the waitress turned to look down at her.

"He told me to give you this too," the waitress said, handing Akane a crumpled up piece of paper out of her apron.

As the waitress left, she glanced down at the note in her hand and then back at Juan. He nodded toward the door and threw a wink over his shoulder as he left the bar.

"Whad ith shay?" Shachi asked, spitting on her cheek.

"It says 'meet me at the love boat'... is this the best he has?" Akane said, laughing with the rest of the crew. Law continued to slice his steak into tiny pieces quietly. "As lame as he is, I recognize his wanted poster and he would help replenish my bank account nicely if I shipped him over to the Marines."

Law looked up. "You aren't seriously going to go with him, Miss Akane."

She shrugged, picking up her boiler suit and slinging it over her shoulder. "I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I get a new pocket pistol out of this."

She followed Juan out the door, leaving the Heart Pirates to eat.

"Love boat. Ha! We're the Pirates of Heart; we can come up with _way_ better pick up lines than that! Right, Captain? Captain?" Penguin asked, noticing Law still had his eyes on the door.

He drummed his fingers against the table with his head in his hand, his eyes shifting around as he thought of a plan. It would be too obvious if he trailed after her so he would have to outsource to his crew.

"Shachi, Penguin, go follow her."

"But we just go our food!"

His gray eyes flicked toward them, calm and black like a shark circling around them. Shachi and Penguin reluctantly got up and headed for the same door their crewmate had left moments before. Shachi called over his shoulder," Take care of the captains, Captain."

"Take care of yourselves first," Jean called. The three remaining pirates made no move to scoot away and picked at their food quietly.


	13. XIII: Effusus Intestina

AN: Chapter XI has been revised/edited with a new part added to it so please check that out so what's revealed in this chapter isn't confusing. That is all.

"Do you really think all of this was just a ploy to make Captain jealous?"

Penguin and Shachi roamed the empty docks of Zanni, the crews of other ships either asleep or at the carnival. They dressed in their black, stealth boiler suits to blend in better as they operated by the moonlight, the carnival lights seemingly miles away. After asking around, the two Heart Pirates found the _Love Boat_ was the name of Captain Juan's ship and was colored bright pink.

"Well, why else would she do it? This is _Aka_ we're talking about here: she knows how dangerous just taking off with some guy could be, _especially _when you're a pirate," Shachi said, hugging close to the sides of buildings to take advantage of its shadow.

"Yeah, you're right about that, but it seems more like a show for that captain guy than for us, you know? You should have seen her talking him up at the bar... I think there's more to this," Penguin said and ducked into an ally with his friend.

"She said she was going to turn him in for his bounty."

"Yeah, but she's from the Cutthroat Pirates: there's no way any of them would associate with the Marines, even for a quick beli, right?"

"I don't know... here she comes," Shachi said and the two pressed themselves further into the darkness.

Akane walked by in a long navy dress that nearly dragged on the pavement behind her. Her hair was pulled up and she stopped a few feet away from the alley, unaware of her crewmate's presence. She pulled a short pistol out of her cleavage, taking out her earrings and loading them into the gun. Akane took a deep breath before continuing down the docks to the only ship with its lights on.

Shachi and Penguin ducked through the back of the alley and climbed up a fire escape onto the rooftops. Their boots were muffled by the thick shingles and they continued to pursue the nurse. They got on their stomachs when they saw her walk up the ramp to the pink _Love Boat_, greeted by Juan. He lead her by the small of her back into the ship before shutting the door behind her, plunging the docks into darkness again.

"Now what?" Shachi asked, resting head in his crossed arms. The blue moonlight gave the _Love Boat_ a purple tint as it rocked on the dark waters. The lapping of the water provided a serene background noise for the quiet night.

"Wait I guess, maybe rest our eyes for a second," Penguin said with a yawn.

"What good will that do?" he asked, yawning. "Damn it, Pen, now I'm yawning!"

"Okay, okay we'll just have to think of something to do to occupy ourselves," he said, taking off his hat to scratch his head, racking his brain for thoughts. "_When I was a lad in a fishin' town, the old man said to me..."_ Penguin trailed off, looking for Shachi to continue the song.

Shachi rolled his eyes and sighed. "_... you can spend your life, your jolly life, just sailin' on the seas... _seriously, we're singing?" he asked after mumbling the lyrics.

"Either this or take a power nap so _you can search the world for pretty girls, 'till your eyes are weak and dim,_" he finished. His cap was off as well as they watched shadows pass by the yellow light shining through the portholes.

"_But don't go searching for a mermaid, son, if you don't know how to swim_!" they sang in unison, a smile sneaking onto the redhead's face.

Akane's back slammed onto the bed with Juan biting the salty flesh of her neck. A sheen of sweat covered both them both and their clothing was in various states of disarray; Juan's coat was crumpled on the dark wooden floors of his quarters and Akane's dress was tangled around her hips, revealing white silk underwear. She raked her nails over his bare back, her Devil Fruit shooting a pleasant, tingly feeling over his body. Usually her encounters didn't last this long because of her Devil Fruit, but the man was a dangerous pirate and would be able to tell if something was off if she was in any sort of hurry.

_"'Cause her hair was green as seaweed, skin was blue and pale."_

She rolled over so she was sitting on his stomach and began undoing his pants, guided by the candles and lanterns hanging around his forest green quarters.

"I figured this wasn't the first time you've done something like this," he said, looking down at her with dilated pupils. She was relieved at his body's physical reaction, but his words sent her heart racing at the possibly double meaning.

"I could say the same for you," she said with a slur for added effect, placing a kiss on his stomach to send another debilitating shock down his spine. She felt the muscles in his legs relax as she slid the black pants off, hearing the hidden daggers clatter to the floor. "Naughty boy, were you going to cut me out of my clothes?"

Juan was about to answer when her navy dress hit him in the face. He would have removed it from his face, but his limbs felt like they were made of lead. He blinked slowly through the cotton, seeing her nearly naked silhouette.

"_Her face was a work of art, I loved that girl with all my heart, but I only liked the upper part."_

"You should be punished," she purred, pulling the rope out of her bra and crawling over his body, dragging the silk bra over his chest as she tied his arms to the bed post. She knotted the dress over his eyes, making sure the pistol didn't brush against him. She ran her nails along his legs as she went to tie his ankles, the pleasant shock making all coherent thought leave his sluggish mind.

"How are you going to do that, Akane?" he asked, his mouth feeling full of cotton as her nails nipped at the sensitive skin around his ankles.

"Shh. It's a surprise, love," she whispered and slowly rose from the bed. She plucked his coat from the floor, slipping it on and buttoning it over her tan skin.

Akane pulled the pistol out of her bra, taking the safety off and drawing the silver hammer back. She climbed back on the bed and over his body, taking the pillow from behind his head and putting it over his face before putting the muzzle of the pistol in his mouth. Juan screamed for his body to move, but his limbs were tied and his nerves didn't want to react while her bare leg touched his.

"Surprise," she said and pulled the trigger.

"_I did not like the_-"

_POP_!

Shachi and Penguin looked over at the far left side of the _Love Boat_ and saw a short, shapely shadow loom in the largest porthole which they presumed to be the captain's quarters.

"What happened?" Penguin asked, looking over at his friend who was putting his hat back on his head.

Shachi noticed movement on the right side and a mob of silhouettes were racing toward their captain's room, their movements creating frantic shadows like a passing train. "I don't know, but the rest of that crew wants to know too. Let's go."

Akane hastily began pulling out drawers where Juan could have stashed what she was looking for, but could only find maps and captain's logs. Her heart pounded in her ears as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She wiped her brow as she looked wildly around the room, searching for some sort of indication of where he would hide something so priceless.

"Captain? What's wrong?" various voices yelled outside the locked door, banging harshly on the wood. It sounded like twenty men were piled outside, listening for their captain's voice.

Her eyes fell on a treasure chest beneath the bed and she hastily flipped open the latch to find a folder marked **CLASSIFIED** with the Marine's stamp. She kissed it and then began searching for a weapon as she heard the banging grow louder, realizing they were trying to break down the door. Her pocket pistol held only one bullet and she couldn't conceal any more under her thin dress; she picked up the sword resting in the corner and stood on the bed, ready to strike.

Three pirates burst in after breaking the door down and before they could react to their captain's murder, Akane jumped from the bed to give her more strength as she sliced their heads off. The sword was light, but not durable like Law's nodachi so it required more strength to actually inflict damage, but that wasn't the problem; the problem was Akane was a gunslinger, _not _a swordswoman. A burley man knocked the sword out of her hand and punched her straight in the teeth.

She fell to the floor with the impact and he proceeded to kick her, not allowing the small woman to get back up. She finally made a grab at his leg, thinning the flesh to resemble rice paper and raked her long nails through it. He cried out and fell back, looking at his leg in horror to see the bone, but crawled over to her and wrapped his meaty fingers around her neck. She was going to reach up and grab his face when two more men came and stomped on her wrists.

_Crack._

Akane tried to howl in pain, but the man constricting her windpipe as the rusty tasting blood from her broken teeth slid down the back of her throat. She looked up into her assailant's blue eyes, only seeing red and a fierce grin as he watched tears slide down her face; she had killed his captain and he was getting revenge. It was worth smiling about.

Stars began spotting her vision and she started to thrash around with her lead filled legs to remain conscious.

"That shit won't work on us, girly-"

He stopped short when he heard commotion coming from the hallway. The pirates watching the fiasco were shouting and the sounds of fighting flooded the room. The man strangling her was knocked sideways by a chair. The other two were then pummeled ruthlessly by two men in dark boiler suit; with her doubled vision, Akane thought it was two sets of Shachi and Penguin coming to save her.

After knocking another man down, Penguin quickly scooped her up and tossed her on the bed to keep her out of the way of the fight while Shachi punched a cabin boy in the throat and kicked another guy in the groin. Penguin checked her eyes and face like his captain had taught him and saw she was being lost further and further to the lure of unconsciousness. He gingerly tried to move a bloodstained pillow beneath her head, eyeing the bullet hole curiously.

"Akane, we're here just try to stay awake, okay?" he said kicking a man in the stomach who was trying to attack him from behind. Blood seeped out of the corner of her open mouth, sliding down her chin as she tried to piece together what he was saying. "Hold on, me and Shachi are going to take care of these guys..."

The world for Kousa Akane faded away; the image of her crewmates fighting was forever burned behind her eyelids.

"Room."

Her eyelids drifted open as she heard her captain's voice and saw the blue dome cover the medical bay. She felt he cold metal operating table beneath her with a brilliant bright white shining above her. As her senses continued to lose their numbness, she realized her wrists and ankles were bound to the table with rope; she tested the rope's strength, but her lead filled limbs only pressed the knots tighter into her bruised skin.

"Shambles."

Her wrists were separated from her body with his nodachi and she let out a blood curdling scream as her limbs fell back onto her stomach. His gray eyes drifted down to her as he held one of her hands, the other floating dumbly around. She winced as he flipped the broken wrist over with his nimble fingers. Law sat down in the chair pulled up to the operating table and dug into a drawer beneath it, fishing out a scalpel; he proceeded to slowly open the hand up, using her tattoo as a macabre stencil. She cried out again.

"Miss Akane, it will only hurt worse if you watch me," he said evenly, but the edge to his voice was as sharp as the scalpel cutting into her.

"What are you doing? How did I get here? Where's Penguin and Shachi?" she asked, her voice rising an octave as he took out the broken bone. He pulled out a metal band and snapped it over the bone, screwing it together tightly with a screwdriver nearby.

Law his gray eyes flicked to her face before moving onto the next wrist. The blood gushing around his white gloves phased neither of them as he put the bones back in place. As he began sewing the flesh on the top of the hands back together, she asked," Isn't there any morphine or anesthesia?"

"Only patients who do something courageous get access to that," he said, his voice biting as he sewed the tattooed hand back together next.

"Oh." She pressed her cheek to the cool operating, trying to ignore the searing pain ripping through her when the smell of blood clung to her nose. She tried counting the spots on his hat to take her mind off of it when he spoke again.

"Oh? I almost lost three crew members because one was being foolish," he said, his words twisting her insides. Her wrists floated the stubs of her arms; he pinched his fingers together and her hands were joined back together with her arms. The room disappeared abruptly.

"What were you thinking, Miss Akane?" he asked, tearing off his gloves and throwing them into the waste basket before opening the drawer to and shoving the Marine folder in her face. "Was _this_ worth almost killing your shipmates?"

"Yes," she admitted quietly. His eyes narrowed and he slammed his hand down near her face, watching her flinch.

"You almost killed_ half_ of my crew to get it, so you better have a damn good reason," he snapped. She went to put her hair behind her ears when he slapped his hand down to cover the offending wrist, pressing it painfully into the operating table. "I will cut off your hands if you do that again."

Her eyes were wide as she stared up into her captain's, his anger in stark contrast to his usual laid back demeanor. "My sister, Kira, sold those documents to pirates when they came to the island; she left with the files and my life savings three months before I became a pirate," she said slowly.

His eyes searched for a lie, but he found none. He reached into the drawer and pulled out gauze to wrap her hand.

"I knew something was wrong when she would come home wearing new clothes when we couldn't afford to eat three meals a day, but I just thought she was whoring herself out. Of course it all comes together for me when she's halfway across the Grand Line with some guy she was sleeping with."

"When Mama came to my island, I was broke and I was living with my blind sister and grandparents. I went with her because I knew that was the only way I'd ever be able to get these back," she said, tapping the folder with her hand not being wrapped.

"What was the experiment about?" he asked, taking her other hand to wrap gingerly.

"They were trying to figure out if Devil Fruit users could resist seastone," she whispered, her stomach nearly dropping as she admitted the secret of her parent's work. "Imagine if that fell into Black Beard's hands."

Law nodded, but held onto her wrist to inspect it. The pulse pressed against her skin steadily. "One sister is sailing the sea and ruining your life, but what about the other?"

"I don't know." She shook beneath him as she took a deep breath. Her defenses were crumbling and Law listened quietly as she sat in the middle of the ruins. "I tried writing to her, but what good is it writing to a blind person?"

Akane fought to stop her dark eyes glistening, but a stubborn tear sliced down her face. He clasped her hand fully and pulled her to a sitting position. She swiped the tear away with the gauze of her free hand and Law lead her to sit in the leather chair behind his desk.

"Since you went through surgery without morphine, you can have candy," he said, his laid back smile returning on his face for the first time since she woke up. She couldn't help but laugh at the madness of it all: two twenty something's eating candy after a major surgery.

For the first time in her life, Akane accepted candy from a doctor. For the first time in Law's life, he gave someone candy because they were feeling sad.

_Sad._

_ SAD_.

_ SAD._


	14. XIV: Fati Filum

The following morning, the crew separated after Law let them have the day to themselves; he and Akane chose to walk aimlessly around the midway, the nurse consuming vast amounts of sugar so her nerves could buzz in a sugar rush rather than vibrating with the emotions rattling around inside of her. As she gnawed on her funnel cake, she couldn't help but steal glances from her captain who appeared to have his mind in another world.

Law has chosen to let Akane assume that last night had not happened, or at least the emotional ramifications behind it had not; he knew he struck not a nerve, but a _vital organ_ within his nurse when he had grilled her about the Marine documents. He had decided he would help her in any way he could, but they would never speak of the incident again to spare her dignity. He felt her eyes peer up at him every now and then, making sure he was still there or not scrutinizing her like he was about to dissect every corner of her mind, but it was best to say nothing. Spilling her past to him was nothing more than _interesting_, but now the scales in their bazaar friendship tipped to where he knew _everything_ about her, yet he still had a veil of secrecy covering her eyes.

"You're going to rot your teeth if you keep that up," he said and she looked up at him, swallowing the fried dough thickly.

"I can't remember the last time I've had sweets, so I guess I'm just indulging myself," she replied, using the back of her hand to wipe the corner of her mouth.

He brushed powdered sugar off her cheek and tasted it, grimacing at the sweetness. "You don't remember because you probably went into a sugar-induced coma."

She bumped her hip into his long leg, earning a laid back smile from him.

"Is there anything you want to do around here, Captain? You don't seem interested in any of the rides or games," Akane said as the passed through the midway.

"The bolts on those death traps are waiting to give at any minute and why would I play any games when I have a bear?" he asked and she beamed at the mention of the stuffed animal sitting in his desk chair right now.

"What about this?" she asked, pointing up ahead. A large purple tent with a beaded entryway stood in stark contrast to the reds and yellows of the carnival. Law read the wooden sign propped up: MADAME RAENI FORTUNE TELLER.

"Isn't fortune telling a sham?" he asked as he followed her into the purple tent, the inside filled with star and moon printed tapestries and blue drapes.

"Yeah, but it's still fun," she said, motioning for him to sit beside her.

They were seated on one side of a round table covered in a sun printed cloth with a swirling crystal ball in the middle. Law looked around to see pictures of palm diagrams and tea leaves surround them. A dark skinned woman appeared from behind a large curtain and sat down across from them in a pink, high backed chair, adjusting the yellow turban around her head. Her eyebrows shot straight into her turban at the two seated in the mismatched, high backed chairs.

"Welcome: I could feel your auras from miles away," she said, palms out peacefully.

"Really?" Law asked bitingly and Akane nudged him beneath the table. He smiled and leaned back in his chair, eyeing the woman. Beads circled around her neck like snakes and her bracelets and rings clinked as she moved to run her hands over the crystal ball. The blue tunic almost blended into her skin it was so dark.

"Oh yes, it's not often I get a pair of doctors, pirates, _and _lovers in my tent at once," Raeni said, smiling knowingly.

He slapped a hand on his companion's knee before she could correct her, smiling with devilish charm. "However did you come to those conclusions?"

"She has a caduceus on her hand and you're Mister Trafalgar; it doesn't take a third eye to see that," she said, tapping the center of her forehead. "And the bond is strong between you."

Something clicked in Akane's head, causing her sit up. "Wait a second... you're the waitress we had from last night."

"Ah, you are sharp, but I wouldn't expect less from a doctor," Raeni said, smiling. "This is a side gig to earn some extra cash so I could leave this island, but you are not here to listen to my woes: you two are here for me to reveal you future, correct?"

The medics exchanged a look before Law shrugged, slouching back in his chair. Akane handed the woman a handful of beli and Raeni took the olive hand in her chocolate one. She flipped it over to see the palm, tracing the lines with her fingernail.

"Huh, interesting," she muttered. "Trafalgar, give me your hand."

He arched an eyebrow, but complied. He gave the woman his tattooed hand and she brought it to lay beside Akane's. She traced her purple polished nails over each one before stroking her chin.

"Your palms are so different, but your life lines and heart lines are nearly identical," she said and the pair leaned their heads down near toward each other to get a better look. Law's hands were covered in calluses and cuts while Akane's were soft with a scar in the center; as for their heart and life lines, all they saw were indentations in the palm. Nothing more, nothing less.

"What does that mean exactly?" Akane asked, taking back her hand with Law doing the same.

"You're both very logical, but you, my dear, are more controlled by will than he is," she said, her hands out toward Akane, nodding at Law. She folded her hands on the table and said solemnly," The lines run smooth and deep, but the life line is broken at the point where that and the heart line curve away from each other. I feel you two are close, but the roots weaving beneath the tree of life will constrict you, driving you apart."

"What evidence do you have to prove this theory?" he asked, sitting up in his seat.

"You haven't taken your hand from her knee the entire time you've been here, Mister Trafalgar," she said and he looked down to see Raeni was right, but there was no point in taking his hand away from his nurse's warm knee when the damage has been done. Raeni smiled when his gray eyes returned to her hazel ones. "A dangerous man like you wouldn't waste your energy on a dangerous woman like her for nothing if not out of fondness. You may find this to be a hoax, a way to get rich, but you shouldn't ignore fate when it's so clearly marking you."

"What do we do when the wedge happens?" Akane asked, leaning forward.

"You paid for a fortune teller, not a spiritual advisor/therapist," she responded, taking the turban to reveal her stunning afro with the bone through it and counted the beli.

"I'd pay for a cook who wants to get off this island."

Akane turned to Law, surprised by his boldness. His easy going smile almost radiated the small room, an unnatural and artificial glow that struck the two women.

"How'd you know I cooked your food last night?" Raeni asked, truly puzzled.

He smiled wider. "I could feel it in your aura... and I found a hair in my food similar to yours."

"Well, if you want me as a cook after that, you must be desperate Mist-" she caught herself, smiling as she headed out of the tent with them. "_Captain._"


	15. XV: Vapulus Semita

"Is this a dead leg?" Akane asked Raeni as she knelt in front of her, holding a reflex hammer. Law bestowed the honor of giving their newest crew member a physical to and left with Jean to ask around about the next island.

Raeni looked down at the nurse below her from the medical bed and shook her head. The white medical bay floor's had dried blood in some places and the operating table was a mess, though Akane seemed oblivious to it. The cook couldn't help but feel her heart bound beneath her t-shirt and apron at the thought of being dissected. "The last time I checked it worked."

"That's impossible!" Akane said, sitting up to place her stethoscope and hammer aside. "I've been hitting your reflexive nerve for the past ten minutes and it won't move a muscle. Let me check this out."

"Oh, lord have mercy, please don't cut off my le-" She rolled up Raeni's blue bell bottom pant leg where the 'dead leg' was to reveal it was indeed dead... since it was made of wood. Her brown eyes flashed up to the cook's hazel eyes, eyebrow quirked.

"I told you it wasn't dead! It works fine," Raeni said, swinging it to demonstrate and wiping her brow.

Akane rapped her knuckle around it, eyeing the workmanship. Across the ankle a phrase was carved roughly into it: RAENI IS QUEEN. "Did someone carve this in with a spoon, Raeni?"

The dark woman nodded, laughing slightly and said," You bet, the kitchen boy did that after I told him the reason I have a bone in my hair is I'm a queen in my hometown."

"Are you?" she asked, rising with her patient hopping off the table and following the nurse out of the medical bay.

"Nah, the bone's just stuck there," Raeni said with a wave of her hand, her wooden peg hitting the steel stairs oddly as they climbed up them.

Akane's laughter echoed down the metal hallways. "I never thought I'd see another pirate queen since Hancock."

"Ooooh, that woman defies physics with that form," she said, fanning herself as they stepped into the kitchen.

Shachi and Penguin cleaned the kitchen viciously that morning when they heard they were finally getting someone on the sub who could cook. Upon discovering it was Raeni, the waitress that shot down Shachi, they threw their cleaning supplies out the window and into the ocean in disgust before stomping away.

"I always wondered if her breasts were fake... but it seems that everyone around here is impossibly proportioned," Akane said, sitting at the wooden table as Raeni began to knock pans together in search of something to cook.

"You'd know because you're a plastic surgeon, right? Trafalgar mentioned that when he was showing me around," she said, putting a pot of water on the stove before rooting through the cabinets for noodles. "I know you came from an all girl's crew; did you do any surgery on them?"

"Of course. At first I was getting so sick of it since there were forty girls who wanted a boob job right after I sewed their lungs back together or something, but I got over it since that's how I was trained in medicine; cutting people open to stuff silicone inside their torsos isn't as sexy as people think. The end result is what wows people, but usually the girls are pretty to begin with," she replied with a shrug, rising to get a glass of water.

"And _you_ were the ugly duckling of that crew?" Raeni responded incredulously, glancing at the small woman. "Where I come from, you'd be the pick of the litter. I'd even give you my sloppy seconds."

Akane giggled and sat back down, letting the cool water wash down her dry throat. "That's very nice, thanks."

Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo strolled in with their boiler suit sleeves tied around their waists shirtless. Shachi snatched up her water and chugged it, the droplets dripping down his sweating neck.

"Hey! What's the big idea?"

"Don't give me that," Shachi said, setting down the glass and moving past her to get the jug of cold lemonade in the fridge while Penguin and Bepo inhaled their glasses of water vigorously. "You're not the one working in the hot sun loading the cargo in."

"We have _more stuff_? Aren't we going to run out of room in this place?" Raeni asked, looking over her shoulder. The outside of the sub suggested it would be spacious, but half of the inside is devoted to cargo and the medical bay.

"Captain said the next island might be two weeks away so we have to stock up now," Penguin said, wiping his forehead.

"_Two_ _weeks_? What are we going to do for two weeks stuck in this place?" the medic asked, crossing her arm over her chest.

"I don't know, play cards... clean...drink...play cards," he listed lamely, sipping his drink more calmly now that he was hydrated.

"The New World is a dangerous place, my friends, it's called new for a reason," Raeni said, chopping a fish head off, her crew mates captivated by the sudden dip in her sugary voice. "The islands you've been to so far were originally established by Marines and have been here for hundreds of years away from the pirates of the Grand Line, so there's no telling how long these little remote islands are going to last without military protection."

"Didn't you say Segre was under Mama's territory?" Bepo asked, lapping his tongue into the glass.

"Yeah, but I thought it was just because she liked it and didn't want anyone else to come there, but I guess it makes sense that the Marines wouldn't come out this far when the real mayhem is happening on the Grand Line," Akane said with a sigh. "Come to think of it, I never did see another pirate ship while I was there."

"Well an island get-away sounds nice until you hear who's guarding it; Captain stayed in the Calm Belt for the first year because he said that with all those pirates sailing to the same place at once... it'd be a massacre. He called it the 'bottle effect'," Shachi said, pouring himself another glass.

"Yeah, I heard Bonney is already out. She was taken into Marine custody by Akainu after being Black Beard's prisoner," Penguin said, almost gravely, picturing Blackbeard torturing her crew. The Heart Pirates leaned forward in disbelief

"Seriously?"

"She barely crossed over into the New World before Black Beard picked her up; I knew she wouldn't last that long anyway though, she's as skinny as a stick and her Devil Fruit can turn people's ages back or whatever. She didn't stand a chance against Black Beard," he continued.

"Still, no one deserves to be stuck with Black Beard," Bepo said quietly, staring into the lemons floating in the half empty pitcher. Raeni shook her head before patting the fish with flour and seasoning before dropping it into the pan.

The thought of Black Beard's seemingly unlimited power made Akane cringe inwardly, thinking of the crates of research notes shoved beneath her bunk. A man like that was inspiration enough for Akane to hunt down anyone who possessed even a page of her parent's work, further igniting the heated relationship between her and her sister. Thinking of the notes also brought to mind her captain who had been absent the whole time.

"Wait a second, where's Captain?" she asked, looking between Shachi and Penguin.

"Over there." She looked and saw the two gold fish swimming aimlessly in the fish bowl inside the china hutch. She smacked Shachi and Penguin upside the head before stalking down to the crew's quarters to read a book.

"Just a little higher, Jean," Law said, directing his navigator to slather the green tecra root paste on the tops of the tall, red oak trees. The forest surrounded the central city and not too many people walked through there, which was perfect for the tasks Jean and Law were performing.

"You still haven't told me why we're doing this," Jean called down below as his captain moved to the next tree, slathering the slimy paste onto the bark .

He smiled coolly. "Research."

Jean slid down the tree and landed on his bare feet with a loud _thump_, staring at the back of his captain that was walking away from him. "This seems like a large amount of tecra root for just 'research', Captain; didn't Akane say to use this for headaches?"

Gray eyes met his black ones as the doctor replied sharp and pointedly like the fangs of a snake," Yes, but in a way I _am_ removing a headache by trying to find the source. "

The navigator pursed his lips and nodded before climbing another tree with a jar of the paste in his pocket. The ashy bark of the thin branches creaked under his mass as he swiftly climbed up the tree, swinging like an ape. Amongst the thick leaves, Jean found a branch that could fully support his weight and he sat down; he began slathering the tecra root on the exposed bark, the slime gleaming in the late afternoon sun.

He was about to climb back down when he saw it change color from sickly green to a violet. He cupped his hands to call down to his captain," The paste just turned colors; what does that mean?"

"What color is it?" Law asked, jogging over to the base of the tree, his tattooed hand brushing beneath the brim of his fuzzy hat to shield his eyes from the sun.

"Dark purple."

The young doctor reached into his back pocket to the check the herbal guide Akane had lent him. He scanned the colors the paste would turn when exposed to certain levels of radiation or toxins. A smirk tore across his face, almost threatening to break it.

"Jean, I think we're going to have to go farther out into the New World than I originally thought," he said, the brightness in his voice almost knocking Jean out of the tree as he climbed down.

"By how much, Captain?" he asked, landing beside him and saw Law take out a piece of scrap paper covered in his small chicken scratch. He was quiet as he continued to jot down and calculate their future distance according to the level of radiation given off from the root.

He handed the finished result to the navigator. Jean arched an eyebrow.

"Captain, with our current supplies and velocity of the submarine, we won't make this distance without starving to death," he said seriously, his dark eyes casted down at Law.

"Trust me, it'll be worth it."

The fire burning behind his charcoal eyes refused to die out, a man possessed with excitement and rage. As Law began to walk up the dirt path back towards their sub, Jean stopped him.

"Where are you going now?"

Law looked over the black sheath of his nodachi resting on his shoulders and replied," My transponder snail fell out of my pocket on Segre; I'm going to tell Bepo and the others to get more supplies for our trip."

He continued to walk until Jean stopped him again, grabbing his shoulder. "You didn't answer my question, Captain: _where_ are you going?"

Law was quiet as he processed the meaning, dropping his nodachi to rest in his hand.

"You don't know," he continued, turning his captain to face him fully," where this path will take you, but you don't care because you know where it ends. When you seek the path of revenge you bury two graves: one for your enemy and one for yourself. Revenge is an empty pursuit of passion; I thought an intelligent man like you would surely see that."

Law's eyes narrowed and he stepped backward, falling out of his navigator's grip. "You know nothing of this-"

"Nothing of revenge? I _lusted_ for the blood of those Celestial Dragons to be spilt, praying for god-given vengeance to prove my suffering wasn't for nothing, only to have a Supernova come along and break me free of my shackles. All that rage evaporated and turned into something I never thought I'd experience again: hope. You gave me hope for the next generation of pirates, that it wouldn't die out or be replaced with the likes of Black Beard. Yet, your generation is marked as the 'worst'; not because of your ability to survive or destroy, but because of the pure ignorance," he said, silencing his captain.

Law's jaw clenched, but felt his tongue would move to slice through his navigator as Jean continued to speak, his tone a tidal wave of emotions immobilizing him.

"I only knew one other person who would blindly follow their emotions so irrationally, to lead them and their crew into danger, and that was Mama," Jean said, an itch tugging at his tonsils as his throat constricted. "She killed any Marine or pirate that came close to her ship all because our daughter was shot in a firefight." His dark eyes ached at the confession, but he still continued, more passionate than before.

"Can you imagine fighting every day with random crews because of what _one_ long dead pirate did fifteen years ago? She left a mass grave on that island, even if nearly all of them were her own; for god's sake, she left _Akane_ to die on that island all because she needed to get her ship, her vessel of fading memories, to safety. When Nanami died, a part of Mama died with her...and a part of me died too."

The mass grave of pirates and the red ship flashed in the back of Law's mind, the mention of Akane allowing the words to stick to his steely surface. The doctor's gray stare lost its hard edge as his navigator's confessions came flooding out, his face looking older and worn like a flag struck by the sea too often, finally beginning to tear at the seams.

"So don't you _dare_ tell me I know nothing of revenge, Trafalgar Law, because I've_ lived _it." Jean stalked past Law, the dust of the worn path casting a cloud of doubt to rest on his yellow shoulders. Law brushed off the tan dirt and walked the other way.

Akane found herself in another state of insomnia. The crew ate without their navigator and captain, figuring they would show up eventually, and all eventually retired to bed. She had first gone to the medical bay to visit with her captain only to find the door was locked. Akane scratched her scar visible through her makeshift night gown before stopping at the top of the stairs in the main hall, seeing a light come from beneath the control room door.

"Jean?" she asked, knocking and nudging the door open.

Jean said nothing, fully engrossed in his work, not even putting it on autopilot to greet her. She sat down on the empty table near him, watching the black ocean curl around them in currents. The fish avoided the bright beam of light at all costs, possibly because they got a closer look at the scowl on the navigator's face.

"Jean, is something the matter? Do you want din-"

"I'm fine."

She tucked her hair behind her ear and asked quietly," What happened out there? Captain's locked himself in the medical bay and you haven't left this roo-"

"Let him be. He's probably trying to strip himself of humanity by dissecting dead animals," he said firmly, his jaw tightened.

"Still, Raeni said the aura's off around here and I agree with her," she admitted, the bitterness seeping behind the navigator's voice sounding so foreign compared to the calm, patience it usually held.

Jean sighed and put the sub on autopilot, turning his chair to face her. He ran a large hand through his black mane, sighing loudly. "Don't make him anymore of that tecra root paste, okay? The last thing he's using it for is headaches."

"The only other use is to detect toxins..." She trailed off when he looked at her expectantly."Why is he looking for toxins? Is this some kind of experiment?"

"Far from it; I don't know exactly what our captain is up to, but all I know is it's going to be the end of us when he goes through with it. Hell, you've _lived_ through this. You know how destructive anger can be when it affects the whole crew," he replied, watching her brown eyes register who he was talking about.

She sighed and played with the collar of her large shirt. "I don't know if it's right to talk about this behind his back; he knows what he's doing, so he should just do it on his own, right?"

Jean frowned at the way she avoided his eyes. "Oh no."

"What?" she asked, bringing her eyes back to meet his.

"I should of known that was the reason he kept you in this crew, even after the trouble you caused him," he continued, turning back to control the sub with a shake of his head. "How old's your grudge? Law's is ten, but I don't know if you'll be able to surpass that."

"Excuse me," she said, crossing her arms over her chest," but that's far from the reason why I feel that it's wrong to be questioning our captain's orders. I don't understand why you are so ornery about all of this; did Captain say something to you to upset you?"

"He's a man of few words. He said everything with silence."

They were quiet, allowing their tempers to cool off. He took a deep breath and continued," I'm sorry to poison you with my foul mood, Akane, but I would have expected _you_ not to fall into the same trap of revenge and grudges; Mama almost killed her entire crew to take out _one_ measly ship because it was too close to her. She left you on an island to _die_ in order to deal with her grief. I imagine you would of thought of leaving, but Mama would have put a hole through your heart."

"How can you say that? I thought you and Mama were best friends. I mean you've known her for forever, doesn't that count for something?" she asked, the words ringing harshly in her ears as they came to surface.

"Forever ended when Nanami died. Mama was never the same after that, she became a stranger living inside the woman I once knew," he said, the dark sea easier to admit this to than to his old lover's former doctor.

"She was your daughter too."

In the reflection of the glass, Akane saw his eyes look to meet hers. The words detonated inside his chest, the cavity feeling empty and heavy. The words still sizzled on her tongue, causing her to put her hand to her mouth and over her heart as the words burned holes of guilt inside of her.

"How could I forget?" he asked quietly, his eyes focusing on the black, empty ocean.

She reached out, clasping his large shoulder with both hands. "Jean, I'm so sor-"

He put a hand before covering it over hers. "You were simply stating a fact, Akane; you're just tired. I'm tired too."

The warm weight of his hand left hers to cover the wheel again. Akane got up to leave briskly, but said over her shoulder," She looked like you."

As the door shut behind her, Jean put the sub on autopilot once more, covering his eyes with his hands as the bitterness threatened to escape.


	16. XVI: Tenere Spiritum

"Ugh, I'm so hungry; why can't we eat breakfast anymore?" Penguin asked, clutching his stomach while he waited for Raeni to deal the cards around the dining room table. With the addition of their cook, they added another chair to the table, placing Law and Jean at the heads, however, both were absent.

The first week of their long journey to the unknown was similar to crawling over glass: painful and slow. Jean was held hostage by the unpredictable ocean and wouldn't be able to leave the control room until they reached their destination and Law hadn't emerged from the medical bay; the rest of the crew had been either sleeping or complaining to fill the gap of time they were stranded in the sub. They were currently on their thirtieth game of cards within seven days.

"Captain said we can save more food if we just get rid of the most important meal of the day, but I guess it's not that important if we're just sitting around," Shachi said, resting his head on folded arms. "Akane, how are you not hungry? You're wasting away enough as it is."

Akane sipped her water quietly and allowed her eyes to skim over her herb book before she turned the page and looked at Shachi. Law was apparently finished with it since she found it her night stand when she awoke that morning. She was rather short and athletic, but hunger eluded her; the current theory racking through her head was she was stealing the candy in Law's office, but her supply had been cut off because of his chosen absence.

She shrugged." Who knows, I tend to be more dehydrated than anything else. Is Bepo still sleeping? His paw hit me right in the face this morning and he didn't flinch."

"Maybe, I haven't seen him for a while actually. Wouldn't surprise me if he's hibernating." Raeni finally set the deck in the middle of the table as the rest of the crew picked up their cards. "He'd be bored with this anyway since he can't hold the cards right."

"I like playing with him though," Shachi said, pushing his chips into the middle."He makes it easy to look at his cards."

"Shachi!" Akane exclaimed, lightly slapping him with her book before picking up her hand.

"You gotta take what you can get when you play cards around here and _especially _when you play against Captain; I swear, his poker face could let him get away with murder."

"I think it's more of his charm if the jury was all women," his friend responded, tossing in a couple of chips.

The ginger sighed while Raeni pushed her entire pot in. "God, he's so lucky; the women want him, the pirates want him, hell, even the Marines want him!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, the _Marines_? Where'd you hear that from?" Akane said, moving one chip in.

"They _want _him to report to the Marine Base," Penguin said, his crewmates giving him an odd look. "I kind of checked his mail, but I saw they threw around 'war lord' a lot."

"That's great! Nothin' but smooth sailing if Captain becomes a war lord!" Shachi exclaimed, raking in the pot as both girls folded their cards.

"What does that even mean though? You're above the law?" the cook asked, not knowing the government rules as well as the pirates.

"Hold on, I think I still have it," Penguin said, rooting through his boiler suit pocket.

"You didn't give it to Captain yet?!"

"I've been meaning to, but his door is locked and he's not responding to the intercom." He pulled out the folded envelope, carefully raising the red stamp as to give the illusion it was never opened. He recited in one breath: "In addition to a frozen bounty, since you are no longer classified as a pirate, you will carry out acts the government will assign. If you fail to do so, your war lord status will be revoked and in addition to your crimes you will also be marked with committing treason, a crime punishable by death."

"How does that apply to us though?" Raeni asked, rising to begin making lunch.

"The government looks the other way to any piracy committed, so I guess we're in the clear too because you can't be a very good pirate without a crew," he answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"He's still not a war lord yet. Mama got a letter like that too, but they didn't want to meet her in person," Akane said, picking up her book again while two others continued to play cards. "Captain has the capacity to be dangerous and that's why they sent him a letter, but they can't just hand over power like that without something bad happening before."

"We do plenty of 'bad' things so you'll have to elaborate, honey," Shachi said, shuffling the cards.

"Mama sunk a Marine hospital before she got her letter."

"What?!"

"Why would she do that?"

Akane shrugged. "It was before I was on the crew, but all I know is once you get the letter they expect you to something worse afterwards to prove you could be a threat to the government if they let you go loose."

"Then why isn't Blackbeard or Kidd a war lord? Hell, why isn't Strawhat a war lord?" he asked, dealing his cards.

"They'd kill for people like that, except there's one problem," she said, rising to read elsewhere. "They're too unpredictable and the World Government doesn't have time to be checking their backs, but that's also why Captain should be wary of accepting such a deal."

"Why? Captain's strong _and_ smart! He could take them!" Penguin said, pumping his fist in the air.

"Maybe, but he's too predictable. The way he fights, the way he operates, even the way he leads his crew. He may not be as powerful as Blackbeard or Kidd, and they'd kill for people like that, but it's easier to kill people like Captain."

As she left, the two folded their cards.

By the second week, the metaphor of crawling over glass no longer applied since one of the pipes broke, spraying glass from the meter everywhere; completely harmless, of course, but never the less a thorn in everyone's side. As the unofficial mechanic of the crew, Shachi was now confined in the boiler room prison similar to the navigator or the captain, but at least they didn't have to operate in disgustingly hot conditions.

Akane had finished all the books on her person and since her captain was AWOL for the time being, she was forced to find new ways to entertain herself instead of reading the same book over and over. She currently found herself in the kitchen with Raeni, painting the dark skinned woman's nails while they waited for the water to boil, a task delayed by the boiler room's malfunction.

"This color is insane; I didn't know you could make things this bright," said, dipping the brush into the pink stained bottle.

The cook took her hand away from the medic to examine her handy work. "You have a steady hand that I myself would kill for, Akane and a good eye too. This is imported from my village. You wanna know what it's made out of?"

She nodded, taking her other hand.

"Snake venom."

"Snake venom? Isn't that dangerous if it gets into a cut?"

"That's the point, girly! Why do you think I grow out my nails?" she said, holding her long triangular shaped nails in front of her face.

"I thought it was a fashion statement, but my fashion starts and ends with matching my underwear," she said with a laugh.

The pot bubbled loudly, signaling the end of their spa session, causing Raeni to sigh. She rose from the table and began rooting through the cabinets only to curse.

"Damn! We're out of that too?"

"What?"

"Noodles and bread! Akane, could you go grab it from the storage room? I don't know my way around as well as you do."

She was about to deny her knowledge of the sub, until she realized that she had been there for almost four months. Akane simply nodded and began her journey to the second floor. Though the food supply was dwindling to the point of cutting another meal, their perishables were gone and now they had to begin on eating the fattening food bought simply for emergencies and bargain over nutritional value.

The long metal hallways seemed endless which didn't surprise her when she realized the boiler room and cargo hold were the only things on the floor. At the end of the hall, she saw smoke leaving the open archway.

"Shit, I hope another pipe didn't break," she whispered, her voice sounding too loud for the echoing hallway. As she came closer and closer to the door, she slowed her brisk pace when the aroma of tobacco hit her nose.

The cloud of smoke drifting from Penguin's mouth clung to her nostrils as she entered the cargo hold, her eyebrow shooting up at the sight. He looked at her lazily out of the corner of his dark blue eyes, as if he was allowing her to be there. She sat on a wooden crate beside the wall he was leaning against.

"So this is why you're never hungry; your lungs are going to be black by the end of this."

"Do you think I care anymore? We only get one meal a day," he said, not protesting when Akane took the pipe from him and inhaled deeply. "Might as well fill my lungs with smoke if I can't fill my belly with food."

The smoke curled upward, trapped by the steel ceiling. "What do you think is going to happen to us? Captain hasn't come out of his room for two weeks and we just mull about like zombies...I mean is this _it_?"

He took the pipe back and chewed on the end, contemplating her question. "By it, you mean the end? Far from it; Captain is capable of some pretty ballsy moves, but they're never stupid. The most dangerous thing Captain has ever done to us is just letting us tag along in his crew. Most people think being a pirate is all about swashbuckling, treasure, and booze, but when you boil down to it, it's a bunch of strangers stuck in a boat for long periods of time trying not to die. Compared to getting into fights with other crews, this is pretty standard, especially in uncharted territory."

"I can't remember a time we ever had to resort to skipping meals on the Cutthroats," she said, crossing her arms over her boiler suit.

"I know, but you had the unfair advantage of everyone being afraid of Mama; I mean, no offense, but she was like the kind of pirate the Marines make us out to be. I've only come across maybe five crews that were like that, but they never make it that far with the Marines breathing down their necks. The Marines even go after the 'nice' ones too. Like look at Strawhat; he and his crew, except for the chicks, are _insane_, but you can't say anything bad about them outside of that," he said, shrugging and taking another drag, blowing a ring.

"When did you run into them? The stories I've heard about them make them seem like more of a myth than actual people," she asked, folding her legs criss-cross.

"We ran into the captain at least at the Paramount War; I wish it would of been under better circumstances, but hey at least we got to see him in action. His fighting moves are all over the place, but there's a reason his bounty's so high."

"'Fighting? You were at that hellhole _during the war?_"

"Sure was. Captain knew it was going to be big and he was right. Good thing too or Strawhat would have definitely died," he said, speaking out of the side of his mouth to hold the pipe in place. He sighed, tracing the carvings with his thumbnail. "God, I felt so bad for that kid; I'm an only child, so I can't say I totally understand what it's like to lose a sibling, but Shachi said it's like you failed at being a family or something like that."

Her eyebrow's furrowed. "I don't think Shachi's ever mentioned that...I thought he had all younger sisters."

"He does, but his oldest sister fell through the ice when he was twelve. It's not something that comes up in polite conversation, so don't let him know I told you that, okay?" he said quietly, glancing at the doorway.

She leaned back on her hands and stared at the bolts in the ceiling. "I am the oldest, but I can't imagine going through that. I still can't even wrap my mind around Captain helping him out. I remember watching that live and I couldn't believe that the 'Surgeon of Death' saved Strawhat's life. I almost still can't believe it since no one talks about it around here."

"That day was a complete nightmare, but that's probably why what happened happened, you know? When Captain brought him in on the operating table, I thought I was dreaming. Me and Shachi kept asking him over and over why he was helping him and you know what Captain said?"

"Why wouldn't I?" they answered together unintentionally. The pipe found its way back to her mouth as she looked at the crates made into a pyramid on the opposite end of the wall.

He rubbed his chin, looking at her and in turn causing her to shrug. "A good doctor never turns away a patient, even if his brother caused one of the bloodiest battles in recent history. I can see what you mean though, about why it seems surreal that Captain would help someone as nuts as Strawhat. I mean, it's like oil and water those two."

"Yeah, but later Captain just said him a 'crazy kid he hoped to see again'. I think that translates 'to use in the future'. I love Captain," Penguin said, holding up his hands," we all do, but he's not afraid to screw someone over if it's for his benefit."

"What would he want with Strawhat though? I heard he's as dumb as a box of rocks," she said, smoke pooling around her neck.

"Who knows, who cares. Captain just uses other people so we won't have to get our hands dirty," he said with a shrug. "Can't say I'm complaining."

"Why would you be?"

They filled the half empty cargo room with smoke and silence.

As the third week reared its ugly head, the thought of consuming broken glass was becoming attractive. Lunch was a luxury they had every _other_ day and now even their company was becoming scarce too. Bepo had woken up from his forced slumber only to eat the goldfish, sending Shachi and Penguin into a rage; with them feuding, Akane and Raeni had found themselves as their only means of human interaction, but with their blood sugars lowering, their tempers flared and emotions rose. They decided it was best to say few words in order to avoid hurting the other's feelings, so now it was down to six people and a bear living on a sub with not enough food.

Their woes and drama were not lost to their captain despite his absence. As Law stared out the window of his room, watching the dark ocean be cut by the submarine, the growling of his stomach refused to allow him rest. Rest. His gray eyes rolled left to look at the open medicine cabinet, the bottles turned over to reveal they were half full or completely empty.

The past two weeks were a blur of medicated sleep and dissecting animals he found in the woods after Jean left him alone on Zanni. Those were the only activities where he couldn't conjure a thought or dream, no matter how hard he tried. Dream. He winced as he leaned back into his messy bed, rubbing his temples.

Trafalgar Law rarely dreamed more than he experienced or relived memories, but last night he had dreamt something as horrific as his days with Donflamingo. Every time he closed his eyes the nightmare would play back with terrifying realness.

_He was in the medical bay, standing among the bodies of his crewmates. The walls and white tiles were splattered with blood and bullet holes and the dead eyes of his crew looked blankly at him, blaming him. In the midst of it all was Akane, trying to treat them even though she was bloodstained and wild eyed and she knew they were dead. _

_"Room," he said, his hallow voice echoing off the pipes of the dark boiler room. How he got there he didn't know, but his body moved to kill and his target was his nurse._

_ Akane ran out of the reaches of the blue light, but Law chased after her slashing his sword all the way. Pipes burst around them with each slice of his sword, hot air scalding her as she ran by. She finally ran into a dead end, the door locked from the inside. Akane whirled around and searched for her captain: the air was hot and steamy from the pipes, the emergency lights casting a red reflection in the fog. _

_ The red mist swirled around Law as he began advancing toward her, his black coat making him blend in completely into the darkness while the red flashing lights caused shadows to dance across his face. His nodachi scrapped painfully across the tile floor, before he picked it up again, pointing it straight at her. She stared into his dark gray eyes and all she saw was death; Trafalgar Law was going to kill her. _

_ As he drew nearer, Akane surprised him, catching him off guard completely: she kissed him. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, her hands clasping around him. Constricting him. His arms dropped to his sides, frozen in place. His muscles were tense as a bow and arrow, posed to strike._

_ "Law, stop," she said, quietly, the melody of her voice accompanying his rapid heartbeat. _

_ He knew she was lying. It was written all over her face, her eyes the color of the ink itself. He wanted to kill her, he had no idea why he wanted to kill her, but he was going to do it. _

_ He threw her off roughly, but before he could say "room", she dived down and grabbed the bare skin of his ankles. She sapped the muscle from his legs and he fell backwards, dropping his sword. She crawled on top of him and grabbed both of his wrists, and he felt the strength draining form his arms as well. He flipped her over and he wrapped his slender fingers around her neck, trying to strangle her. _

_ Her fingers went over his hands and he felt the sickening crunch of his bones breaking as he squeezed and he looked at his broken fingers. Her chest heaved when she looked up at Law while he stared hard at his broken fingers. _

_ "I'm so sorry, Law," she said, tears running pink tracks down her bloodstained cheeks._

He opened his eyes again and turned on his side, refusing to stare at the cabinet. Ten years ago, he was hopelessly addicted to its contents and now he was slowly falling back into those habits. Why? He was the captain of his own crew, but when his stomach churned in agony, he realized that stress was a larger reason than coping.

He found himself looking out the window of his room more than he used to, probably because it was the same sight his navigator was experiencing. The more looked into the dark water, the more Jean's words echoed inside of him. His speech of revenge and lost love didn't stick until Law was walking around looking for animals to kill.

He saw a rabbit hopping around and he was about to unsheathe his nodachi when he felt frozen. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but the thought of hurting the rabbit to relieve stress reminded him of someone else, someone he'd grown to hate. A fox came sprinting past him, taking the rabbit's neck in his mouth before scurrying away and leaving Law with his scattered thoughts.

Was he turning into the man he feared and hated? As he sat up to run a hand through his hair, he contemplated the thought further and further. He left him ten years ago only to be trailing after him again, dragging his crew, his _friends,_ along for the ride. The thought twisted his stomach more than the hunger did, but he couldn't escape it. He was even trying to become a war lord in order to destroy his former boss.

"Captain."

Jean's voice roused him out of his downward spiral over the intercom.

"Yes?"

"We need to stop. There's no food left," he said solemnly.

The feeling of failure washed over him as he thought of his crew starving two floors above him. They had no idea what was running through his head, but even so, he doubted he could explain it well enough for them to understand.

"Is there an island in sight?" he asked, clearing his throat. j

"Yeah, it's maybe forty kilometers away."

Law thought of the rabbit being snatched up by the fox, looking out into the dark ocean; its blackness reminded him of the beady eyes of flamingos.

"Okay."


	17. XVII: Praedonum Corde

The snow groped the Heart Pirate's ankles as they made the long walk from the submarine to the city in the center of the island. Law, Shachi, and Penguin strode comfortably through the snow while the native islanders shivered uncontrollably; Jean was the exception since he had been in these harsh conditions before but the women clung to each other desperately to sap off body heat. Bepo remained on the sub to keep watch and to catch any in the icy ocean for dinner; he's used to hotels not allowing a bear to stay in a room, but he's still incredibly sensitive about it and eats his weight in fish to cope.

"Captain, where are we going?" Raeni asked, trying to control her teeth chattering and struggling to keep up with his long legs. His black coat flared behind him as the wind picked up, causing her to shudder. The snow stirred around them as it snaked across the white ground, their feet crunching loudly.

He glanced over his shoulder. "We'll head into town first to stock up on supplies, possibly buy yourself and Miss Akane more appropriate attire."

"We're getting coats hopefully," Akane said, adjusting Penguin's hat so it would stop sliding in front of her eyes. He had been kind enough to trade her scarf for his hat, but with the wind stinging her eyes she wished she had both.

"Precisely, Nurse. Are you low on ammo? I was thinking we could hunt today and trade for beli" he asked, sticking his hands into his pockets to compensate for the gloves he left in the medical bay. She caught her way up to his side, using his tall body to shield her from the wind.

"I have enough for a shoot out, but how many would it take to kill a lot of deer? I think the better question is are you low on tranquilizers, Doctor?" she asked, watching him pop the collar further on his coat to protect his tan face from the cold. She tied the flaps of the hat around her chin, shielding her watering eyes and wind whipped cheeks.

"Good point, we'll have to see if they have any while we're in town... we can always make our own if push comes to shove," he said, his brisk pace kicking up the snow, causing it to fly into her boots. She walked closer to him to try to do the same unbeknownst to her captain.

"Just look at them."

Penguin looked over at Shachi through the yellow spotted scarf.

"How can they _not_ be sleeping together?" Penguin knocked his shoulder into his friend's side roughly, nearly knocking him into the snow bank. Jean and Raeni cocked their eyebrows as they trailed behind the pair.

"Shh! They're right there!" he said, nodding toward the medic's backs. Akane was nearly jumping to keep Law's pace as well as not get caught in the snow.

"I know, but seriously, man; it's been almost half a year and these two still haven't done it," he grumbled. "I mean, how could our theory be wrong? Captain's even wearing a different hat now!"

"Didn't she give him that?"

"Exactly!"

"Exactly what?"

They turned to see Raeni's head looming between their shoulders, shifting her eyes between them.

"Nothing," they said innocently.

"They are under the false notion that Akane and Captain are lovers," Jean said, his eyes closed to try to relieve the headache beginning to brew from their antics.

"False? You mean they're _not_ together," the dark skinned woman asked.

"Aha!"

Law and Akane glanced over their shoulders at Shachi and Penguin who were linking arms with Raeni between them. Jean met their gaze and simply shrugged his shoulders and the pair looked back ahead.

"They sure are getting along, huh, Captain," Akane said, flicking her head back toward the rest of the crew.

"Shachi and Penguin could befriend a brick wall; you always need people like that in a crew, Miss Akane," he said, scanning the barren land around them that surrounded the approaching city. "Especially when the captain racks up quite the macabre reputation."

She looked up at him. "So? That 'macabre reputation' is the only reason we're here right now and if we weren't here we never would have met."

He glance down at her, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He chuckled lightly and said," I guess that's true, Miss Akane."

"Why do you call me that? It makes me feel as if we're not equals."

"I'm just being polite and you're right: we're _not_ equals."

She huffed, a white puff of air escaping her lips. "I know that, with you being Captain and all, but it makes me feel as if we're not even friends."

"Hmm, but we're not friends either," he said playfully, his mouth pulling into a smarmy smile at her narrowed eyes.

"Then what _are _we, Captain?"

"You're my assistant and I am your doctor."

"Last time I was a doctor's assistant I made house calls at two in the morning."

They were quiet after that, the words slithering past his gray eyes as he thought of her previous boss's sexual harassment. His grip tightened on his nodachi.

"You'll never have to worry about house calls, Miss Akane," he said, nudging her back with the end of his black sheath to make her meet his gaze again. "It's outdated to make house calls when there's hospitals. Besides, we technically live together."

His smirk wavered in discomfort when she kicked a good amount of snow down his boots, but it retreated back into a laid back smile.

"You have wanted posters for animals?" Akane asked the innkeeper, pointing to the wall of wanted posters. It was hard to miss, especially since every poster had different picture of what appeared to be the same creature.

After knocking around the market for hours, they had found the inn toward the edge of the city. Law and Akane were retrieving the keys from the balding, redheaded man while the rest of the crew warmed themselves by the roaring fireplace.

"Sure, why wouldn't ye? Especially the elusive yetis that roam the wastes out west," he said, sweeping a meaty arm toward the window. The snow fell gently, but had nothing to land on. "Not just anything can survive here and there's been disease circulating around the easy game. Those yetis are hell spawns I tell ye; when they wander into village they make the most awful moans while they look for children to devour. It sounds almost like-"

"You'd give us free rooms for a week if we get _one_ yeti?" Akane asked, pointing to the bounty after the long line of zeros caught her attention.

"Ye...ye bet, lil' lady. We'd give you free room and service if you bring back three," he said, baiting the enthusiasm swimming in the sharpshooter's eyes.

Law listened to how dangerous and ridiculous it sounded, but he couldn't back down from a challenge; they'd get to stay in the warm in rather than their freezing sub and free meals. It was too good of a deal, but a good deal nonetheless. The fact that the middle-aged innkeeper thought they were incapable of doing it spurred his interest further.

" Are they nocturnal?" he asked, nodding at the wanted poster.

The innkeeper nodded and pointed a sausage figure out the window. "We only get three hours of daylight here and they just wander in the wastes lookin' for food."

By the gathering darkness outside he figured that would give them plenty of time to catch three of them, but of course he'd need his sharpshooter with them. Law's gray eyes met Akane's and a mutual agreement had already been formed.

"We'll be back, sir," he said and left the inn with his nurse behind him to go back to the sub for ammunition.

"See anything yet, Miss Akane?" Law asked, finishing up the fox hole in the snow.

His black coat made him stick out tremendously, but his nurse's white coat made her blend in flawlessly and the white fur lining the neck provided warmth. He hopped into the hole to find it went up to his shoulders, covering his coat; Akane's barrier was nearly complete as she packed in the final bits of snow to set up her sniper rifle.

"No, I haven't seen a single fluffy beast, Captain. I can't help but feel we've been duped," she said, the single lantern they took illuminating her white coat in a golden glow. "How long have we been out here? An hour?"

"Twenty minutes," he confirmed, pulling a golden pocket watch out of his pocket. He chuckled when she shuddered from the cold.

"How can you stand it? How can any of you stand it? I just saw Shachi and Penguin using their _boiler suits_ to go sledding!" she exclaimed, turning her head to fully face him. The snow collecting on her hat and shoulders shifted to the ground.

"Can you blame them? We haven't seen snow for almost two years," he said, resting his head on his folded arms, his nodachi being covered in snow beside him.

She looked out at the black sky and tried to differentiate between the falling snow and stars. "Do you ever get homesick?"

He shrugged even if she couldn't see it. "Not particularly; that's not much of a home to go to."

"Oh."

They focused their ears on the sounds of howling in the distance rather than the silence.

"I'm guessing you must miss your island from time to time."

"Not really," she admitted, resting her back against her fort to look at her captain."I miss Nori more than anyone, but I don't even know if she's there anymore."

"I understand; you can always write, but sometimes you never know if you'll receive the letter. Eli wrote to me a couple months ago and I still have no idea how his letter found me," Law replied with an odd smile. It was only odd to Akane since for once it reached his eyes.

"What'd it say?"

He reached down into the front of his long coat and pulled out a letter from his pocket. He took off his black gloves with his teeth in order to open the letter.

"_Dear Law, you're an uncle, Caroline is engaged, Dad is fine, Mom has flowers. Sincerely yours, Eli._"

"I can see where you get your curtness from. You're an uncle?"

"Eli's ten years older than me and we look alike so why wouldn't he?" he said, smirking as she shook her head at his ego.

"If you keep listening to those barmaids, your ego will sink the sub. Do you have a picture of your brother?" she asked.

He handed her a picture that was enclosed in the letter; a tall man bearded man that looked like an older Law stood in the middle with his arm around a shorter aging man and a petite, dark haired woman. They stood smiling outside of a storefront that said "TRAFALGAR TRADING".

"The resemblance is uncanny! How come you never grow a full beard? Wouldn't that keep you warm in the winter?" she asked handing him his picture back.

"I am capable; Eli did and I told him he looked ridiculous," he said with a shrug as he put the letter back in his pocket. He climbed out of the foxhole to look out for yetis behind the fort as his nurse copied him.

She slapped his arm gently."That's terrible! How old were you then?"

"I was ten and he was twenty, but ten is still that age where you can say almost anything you want with little to no repercussions," Law replied with a smile.

"Did he ever try to grow a beard again?"

"Apparently he did, but I don't know if he did after I left."

"How can you not know?"

"I left home when I was twelve."

"Why so young? I didn't leave until I was nineteen."

"Things... happen, Miss Akane," he said, concealing the tired sigh that sat poised in the back of his throat.

The snow fell softly around them, the winter air sucking the sound out of the barren, snowy landscape. The breath escaped their mouths like small spirits before they inhaled them. His gray eyes couldn't meet hers as he continued.

"Since the time I was five, my mother had always been ill. According to the few doctors in my town, she had a rare heart condition; some days were better than others, but I remember never seeing her get out of bed. I took over the house work and the care of Caroline while my brother and father were away, but I always wanted to help her. I started studying the practices of medicine when I was seven and eventually ran out of books to read on the island.

"I thought I knew everything, from the frogs and mammals I dissected to knowing every bone in the human body by name. I would read to my mother every time she would slip into comas and recite my knowledge to her when she was awake. She would always ruffle my hair and say 'Lawrence, my heart can't hold my love for you'."

Akane couldn't help but smile at the thought of his young, raven hair being shifted lovingly. He saw the smile out of the corner of his eye and the tips of his mouth curved slightly. "I would brush her off as kids do because I thought I outgrew her affections...but I thought a lot of foolish things. I thought I was intelligent. I thought I was invincible. I called myself a doctor, when I was just a child."

He looked over to see if she was listening and her brown eyes caught his own completely. His gaze dropped back to the snow where he was absentmindedly drawing circles, the snow melting beneath his fingernails.

"The moment had come when it was time for me to shine, to prove I was the doctor I thought I was. My mother's heart completely shut down and she was in desperate need of surgery. I ran to the doctor's office and found out they were all out of town. I rushed back home to find her convulsing so terribly. I knew I had to do something, so I allowed my mother the honor of being my first human patient."

He laughed hollowly, the sound swallowed by the icy air ."I tied her legs to the bed with extra quilts and cut her open only to find my mind went completely blank. I studied the heart for five years and I couldn't think of a single vein or artery that could save her. I watched her heart constrict and leak for six minutes. I watched her gray eyes be consumed by the blackness of her iris. I watched her die. I let _my mother _die and all I could do was hold her hand. Her goddamn hand!"

He slammed his fists into the snow, the 'DEATH' in black ink standing out against the white snow. They shook as the curled into themselves, gripping the cold powder like a lifeline only to melt inside his tan hands. Akane flinched at the black aura surrounding her captain, the raw emotion almost dreamlike on a man as stoic as Trafalgar Law.

"I had to leave home, how could I stay there when I let her die? And who else would take in scum like me then a complete scumbag _like him_. My world was in shambles, the shards stuck in my killing hands; he took those pieces and made something incredible: a future," he spat, staring at his palms free of ink before pushing them back into the snow, ruining the circles. "It was great and terrible. He turned me into a criminal, a street rat who fed off the misfortunes of others like a leech, waiting for our 'clients' to slip up so we could kill them and take their money."

"I was a puppet and he was pulling the strings. That's his Devil Fruit, you know, controlling people. We played that game of cat and mouse, a struggle bound to go on for eternity, until I couldn't stand it any longer; I burned all my bridges in one fell swoop and ran away when I was sixteen. Ten years later, I'm still running away. I'm tired of running, Miss Akane, but where did it take me? I'm back where I started," he said, the last words slipping out between the cracks of his rattled armor.

He refused to look at his nurse, the one whose time he wasting with things long buried in the past, and she pursed her lips as she thought of something profound to say or to do that would stop the anger and sadness circulating through him like blood. The howls of the yetis were carried on the wind, drifting in and out of their ears but they could only hear the sounds of their heart beats and breathing.

She took his hand in her gloved one and he looked at her for the first time.

His eyes contained the same amount of passion and passiveness, but as she looked she realized those steel colored pools encased any escaping emotion into ice. Their mouths were pulled into neutral lines, nothing weighing it into a smile or a frown at the action. The boldness of her affection swam beneath the surface, but neither made a move to do or say anything.

In a way, she got what she wanted. She wanted the playing field to be even between herself and her captain, but now the field was leveled. He's never treated her the same as Bepo and the others, even if he's never said her name without the polite 'Miss' attached to the front or if she's only referred to him by his job titles. These thoughts ran through both of their minds..

His eyes dropped to their hands, feeling the thick wool press against his bare palms and looked straight out into the landscape, trying to pick apart what was alive and dead. Akane followed his gaze, unsure of what to do now that they had officially toed the line.

So there they were, holding hands in the middle of a barren waste land unable to move and unsure of where to go.


	18. XVIII: Erit Sanguis

Francy was an honest man who did dishonest things; he had grown up in a close knit family in a small town, but once he fell in with the Pumpkin Pig Pirates, he knew he could never be a good boy again. The majority of his crew were in the same position as him which was how he found himself wandering around in the snow in search of a ship to steal from. As he traversed with his dyed red hair flopping around with him, he saw a perfectly good place to pillage. The yellow blob sitting alone on the dock bobbed up in down peacefully, completely unaware of the trouble about to arise.

He grinned ruefully. "Perfect!"

He swung his snow shoed feet wildly in order to reach the submarine with its Jolly Rodger's grin egging him on further. He was completely oblivious to how much noise the flying snow and his heavy breathing were making, but he was a pirate and he was going to steal food in order to survive. Francy smiled as he thought of himself as a backwards Robin Hood, but that smile was quickly slapped off his face.

_POP!_

"Aagh!"

Francy fell face first into the snow clutching his leg to his fur coat clad chest, the cold stinging his red face. The pain in his leg was blinding as the blood dyed the white snow and his blue pants a bright crimson; he realized it made him a more visible target to whatever the hell was hunting him, so he tried to get up only to have a boot kick him back into the snow. A new coldness licked the back of his neck in the form of a gun barrel.

"I think you would find it in your best interest to explain why you were about to enter my submarine," a cool, calculated voice said above him and he realized the voice was connected to the boot.

"Please don't kill me, I didn't mean you any harm...I'm lost, man, I'm looking for shelter. Won't you help me? Won't you he-" the steel toed boot kicked him roughly in the rib before turning him on his back without laying a hand on him. Shit, a Devil Fruit user.

"You haven't answered my question."

He looked up to see gray eyes looking down at him from beneath the bill of a fur hat. The man's bags under his eyes gave them a steely edge, cutting Francy to the core; the woman pointing the rifle at his forehead, however, was soft on the eyes. The way they stood closely together as if they were a unit and the fact they were in the middle of the barren wasteland alone pulled a cloak of misconception over his eyes. Francy began putting pieces together that, unbeknownst to him, didn't fit.

"I was looking for shelter and food because my family and I have been traveling for an _awful_ long way," he said, his blue eyes finding his way to narrowed brown ones. "It's just me, my wife, our daughter, her husband, and their _child_, but it's enough to survive on love over food."

"So you thought you'd find shelter and free food from a pirate ship?" the man asked, his voice dropping the temperature around them further.

Pirate ship? Francy looked over at the yellow sub dulled by the overcast sun and saw a red Jolly Rodger grinning at him; as he swept his eyes back over, he noticed the same one in yellow on the black coat of the man.

"Pirate, why I'd never figure such civilized folks as yourself would be pirates, but as my grandmother always told me 'never judge a map by its scale'. I'm trying to teach my _niece_ the same thing, bless her little soul," he said, his eyes finding the woman's again. "She's only two, but she sure loves to travel; she can't wait to see the world so that's why we're here in the New World..."

Law's grip on the handle of his nodachi tightened as he listened to the man continue to ramble to Akane. His hand itched to whip his sword out to hack the man into pieces. The act of him sneaking around his sub was child's play compared to the audacity of lying to him and his nurse to their faces. Especially to his nurse. He had jokingly told Akane they were not equals, but they both knew he was referring to rank, not intelligence. This fool was trying to cater to the loving, _motherly_ side Akane possessed since women obviously can look over attempted theft when a child they don't know is brought into the picture.

Law reached his free hand out and took the barrel of Akane's sniper rifled in his hand. The man stopped as he watched their interaction; he glanced at his medic and she took her gun out of the man's face. Law almost smiled at the man's sigh of relief.

"Oh thank you so much, I can't wait to tell my w-"

"Shambles"

He screamed as his limbs floated around, watching his severed head's reflection in the nodachi's blade. Law's dead, shark-like eyes were in stark contrast to the casual smile on his face. He stopped screaming when Law pointed the tip of his sword against his torso.

"You obviously aren't smart enough to come clean, so I'll let you go, but at a price," Law said, placing a hand over the man's heart. A blue cube containing a hammering human heart rested in his hands and a perfect black, square shaped hole was now in its place.

Francy yelped again as his limbs were sucked into place as the doctor pinched his fingers together. He began rising when Law clenched the cube. Francy grasped at his chest to alleviate the pain springing from there, but realized it was a fruitless endeavor by the sickening smirk that had spread across the doctor's face.

"I'll give you to the count of three to leave here with your life, but I'll keep your heart," he said, tapping the cube and throwing Francy in another loop of discomfort. "If I ever see you around my submarine again, I won't hesitate to kill you."

"You're so kind, sir!" Francy said, kissing the madman's steel toed boots. "I won't say a word to anyone, I won't tell a soul! I'll just go about-"

"One."

Francy scrambled to his feet and sprinted across the white snow, slipping and sliding all the way without a care. He glanced over his shoulder to see them walking away; the man casted a blue dome and soon a pack of yetis were hoisted into the air, creating a ceiling from the falling snow. The woman looked up at his face, smiling with appreciation and Francy saw a laid back smile appear on the man's face. Francy was almost as shocked as he was pleasantly surprised by the change in tone; he only wondered how he would have acted toward him if he didn't try to rob him.

The gray eyes hardened when they saw Francy was still watching them and he continued to run madly through the snow like a rabbit being spared by a fox. The eyes shifted back ahead to the village, the black nodachi resting on his dark shoulders as he and the nurse walked.

"Where's Captain and Akane? They've been gone for hours," Shachi said, hanging his socks over the roaring fire of the inn next to his crewmates. To say they were concerned for their captain and nurse's welfare was an _understatement_; since Law and Akane had left they had: eaten, brought their belongings into the inn, restocked supplies, went shopping, napped, went shopping _again_, and ate some more.

"Maybe they froze to death," Raeni suggested, bundled tightly in enough blankets to look like a mummy.

"How could you say something like that?!" Penguin exclaimed, almost dropping his coffee. "They're skilled hunters... I think."

"Yeah, Raeni! They were probably eaten."

"That's nearly impossible with their combined Devil Fruits; Akane could raise their body temperature and Captain could take down an entire Marine fleet if he put his heart into it. They're fine," Jean muttered, already weary of his crewmate's quarrelling.

"But they've still been gone for a long time, Jean."

"Maybe they ran away together," Shachi said with a yawn, stretching himself out on the bear skin rug.

"What?!"  
"Think about it: they fake their deaths and elope to some tropical island, "he replied casually.

"There's no way Captain would do that to us! I already called being best man!" Penguin said, shoving his friend.

"Well, he _is _a captain so he can marry anyone. Their witnesses can be the yetis," Shachi quipped smarmily, the smirk almost wiped off his face when Penguin tried to push him into the fire.

"Captain! You're back!"

The two looked up and saw that their captain and nurse were indeed alive; red wind whipped faces and runny noses, but still alive.

"Did you have any doubts?" Law asked, his laid back smile broadening as his crew exchanged looks.

"Where's t-the i-i-inn keeper?" Akane asked, rubbing her arms. As a native islander, she was doing as well in the snow as a fish out of water.

"He's tending to something in the cellar, but he'll be back shortly; do either of you need food?" Jean asked.

Law shook his head. "We're more concerned with warming up first. Is there coffee?" the captain asked, removing his wet gloves and hat to dry to by the fire.

"We can ask him when he gets back."

"Alright, in the meanwhile: Raeni, would you draw Miss Akane a hot bath? Her organs may break inside with her how violently she's been shaking," he said, taking his cook's seat on the couch as she attended to his order with a nod. She escorted a shaking Akane up the staircase in the lobby before disappearing on the upper floor.

"So, how was hunting?"

Law's eyes rolled toward Shachi. "It was...interesting to say the least. We bagged enough yetis to stay here for a week; oh, and there was a man who tried to break into the sub."

"What?!"

"How can you say that so casually, Captain?"

Law shrugged and said with a vicious smirk," He wanted to raid my ship and I caught him. Did you think he was going to make it far?"

"Did you kill him?" Jean asked, leaning forward.

"No, I let him run, but I took his heart. Miss Akane shot him in the leg so he'll probably be ridden with frostbite before he reaches his 'family'," he responded, removing his hat to lay it by the fire as well.

"Family?" Shachi asked, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, you should have heard the sob story he was spewing to Miss Akane; I'm surprised his crocodile tears didn't freeze on his face," Law replied, his fist clenching slightly on the arm of the couch.

"I'm surprised he would pin her as the 'motherly type' since she shot him in the leg," Penguin said, removing his cap to scratch his dark, messy hair.

The captain's mouth curled into a smirk as he felt the heart beating wildly in the pocket of his spotted jeans.

Akane sunk further into the bubbles, her nose resting above the steaming water like a crocodile. The bathroom was simple with the essentials, but everything was cramped with the toilet seat next to her head and the sink touching the edge of the tub. She had forgotten the luxuries of a bath; on the _Bloody Mary_ there was fourteen claw foot bath tubs spread throughout the vessel for the various women. The only difference here was the bath water wasn't pink with blood. Her muscles unwound like a spool of thread, disconnecting her limbs as she sunk further into the bubbles. She tilted her head toward the door when she heard a knock.

"Miss Akane, I have dry clothes for you; dinner's waiting for you when you're finished," Law's voice said through the door, the muffled tone echoing around the bathroom.

A brown eye rolled toward the wooden door. "Why can't you leave them for Raeni to put them in here?"

"She and Penguin went ice fishing with Bepo," he said, leaning against the door slightly.

She nodded thought she knew he wouldn't be able to see it. She stretched her legs out to cross her ankles on the lip of the white tub, sinking further into the water. "You can... leave them in here, Captain; there's plenty of bubbles."

A deafening pause detonated inside the bathroom. The golden doorknob muttered as the weight of his hand rested on it. She turned her head to the side when she heard the door creak open and her captain step inside in his yellow hoody, his coat hanging to dry in his room. She couldn't see him wearing the laid back smile on his face as he tried to make their gazes meet.

"Enjoying yourself, Miss Akane?"

Akane nodded, scratching at the bobby pin holding the bun in her dark hair together. "Just fine, it's just what the doctor ordered."

He unceremoniously dropped the clothes on the toilet seat beside the sink. "I'm positive the doctor ordered you to wear more layers."

"Says the one who grew up in snow," she quipped, peering at him from the corner of her eye.

"You should have followed my advice, _little lamb_," he said coolly over his shoulder as he walked out the door

Little Lamb? The latter word rang in her head sharply, her face eyeing the retreating Jolly Rodger on his back. _Deaf Lamb_? Mama had lovingly referred to her as that for years. She racked her brain for where he would get that reference, scratching the dead skin off her chest absentmindedly. As she looked down into the graying water, she saw the bottom of her Jolly Rodger; beneath the two knives that went through the skull's neck was a phrase in slanted cursive that almost reached the top of her areola : _paulo agnum._

"I am not little!" she said, her voice as soft as steam, her face flushed with scarlet.

Law was reading a book by the fireplace when she walked down the stairs to eat her dinner. He glanced up at her above the black frame of his glasses before looking back into the text; she fixed herself a cup of coffee before sitting across from him on the couch.

"The stew's over the fire when you want it, Miss Akane," he said, his voice weighed down by his concentration on the text in front of him.

Akane looked over to see the spine of the book suggested he was reading about different gases. "I didn't know you had an interest in chemistry, Captain."

He shrugged. "Your interests vary with your endeavors; I have a feeling we'll have to go to the library beneath the inn to find more books like these."

"You found that in the basement?"

"Believe it or not, the cook's grandfather is a science enthusiast and they didn't have enough room to place his books so they store them here," Law said with a smile, looking over the book to see his nurse wrapped up in a fur robe and Raeni's discarded blankets.

She grinned at this thought. "Small world, huh?"

Akane was quiet for a long while after that before laughing softly at something.

"Is something funny?"

"An image just popped in my head of Shachi and Penguin using Bepo as a sled," she said with a laugh.

Law smiled and said," Don't give those two any ideas now."

"I know, I know, it's just... everyone seems to be having so much fun. How long are we going to stay here?"

"I don't know, Miss Akane," he said honestly, setting his book aside. "We could be here for days or weeks at a time, but the sooner we leave the better; do you have somewhere you need to be?"

"Oh no, I don't have any place I need to be. I keep thinking I do, but..."

He crossed his legs and turned his body fully to her as he heard her stop, taking off his glasses and closing his book. "But?"

She exhaled and began braiding her hair, the fire's light casting shadows across her face and blending in with her dark hair as she moved.

"I don't know if I can go there anymore," she said, her eyes shining in the fire's orange glow. "I've been with your crew for half a year and I haven't heard a word from Mama. I didn't think anything of it until I saw a wanted poster in the market: it was the picture of a girl in a white boiler suit wearing a yellow scarf."

Law nodded and rose to fix her dinner as she set her empty cup on the wooden floor. He handed her the wooden bowl filled with soup before sitting down beside her; he said nothing as she continued.

"My tattoo is the only thing I have left of that crew! I don't know why I'm telling you this, Doctor. It's just, I never knew when I'd leave Mama and Harper and everyone else. I thought I'd sail with them until I was dead, but with you I can see the end. I know that doesn't sound pleasant, but I can see myself ten years from now with this crew; I know this is all confusing and foolish, but I don't know how else to describe what I'm feeling other than I'm happy and sad that people know that I'm in your crew, Captain. If Mama was here, she'd shoot me right through the heart for saying that, but I wouldn't even take it back."

Their knees touched as she finished her confession. She dug into her soup and looked back into the fire, suddenly feeling foolish for voicing all of these contradicting things to Law. She nearly jumped when he started to laugh. The sound was disjointed, like it was being forced out of the neglected parts of his throat harshly.

"You're right. Your former captain will definitely kill you if you try to go back. I'm afraid you've burned your bridges by coming with me," he said as his laughter died out and she sighed into her soup before taking a bite. "However, Miss Akane, I'm glad you can never go back to them."

She turned her head to find he was leaning back onto the couch, counting the stitches on the blanket stretched over her body.

"It's just another reason for you to stay," he said, a gentle smile taking over his face.

"Why would I leave?" she asked, placing the bowl on the floor so she could turn her body to face him. "You ask me that all the time, but I never know why."

He shrugged, running a hand through his dark hair. "I used to think it was leftover thoughts from when you first joined the crew and I thought you would run away, but now...I don't know."

"I tried to _kill _you when I first joined the crew, Captain. I really can't think of a reason why I'd leave now. I don't want to. I'll you that until I'm blue in the face!" she exclaimed, earning a chuckle from her captain.

"Good thing I'm a doctor then," he said, his smile broadening. The light of the fire caught on his white teeth and the shadows danced across his tan face.

"Captain! Captain!"

Shachi, Penguin, Bepo, and Raeni burst through the door of the inn before filing in front of the fire to gather around Law.

"It's gone! Everything's gone!"

"We tried to stop them, but they had a Devil Fruit user!"

"We have to stop those bastards before they get away!"

"Captain, don't just sit there we have-"

Law held up a tattooed hand. They nearly held their breaths as they waited for him to say something.

"What are you talking about?" he asked calmly, his gray eyes scanning their faces for some sort of clue as to the source of their distress.

"The sub! Everything's gone!" Penguin said. "The food, the maps, the beli... we've been ransacked!"

"By who?" Akane asked, the blankets falling off of her as she sat up straighter.

"You should see for yourself," Shachi spat.

The medics exchanged a look before they retreated to their rooms to grab their coats. The Heart Pirates stalked out in their black boiler suits and coats to the submarine, the howling of the yetis and the falling of snow the only noise accompanying them. Law stalked through the snow hastily, his long legs cutting through the white fluff on the ground as they marched to the docks.

The yellow submarine's door was ajar, but what caught Law's eyes was his Jolly Rodger. The orange smiley face was now covered with the name of the pirates who did it: PUMPKIN PIG PIRATES.

He turned on his booted heel and entered the sub with his crew trailing behind him. The clean metal hallways were filled with emptied drawers and papers. As he walked past the kitchen, he could see the cabinets were all opened and emptied along with the refrigerator that added to the chill sweeping through the vessel. Law stalked down the stairs and past the cargo room which was empty as well, despite the thousands of beli they had spent the previous day to replenish it. The crew stopped behind him as he headed down to the third floor to see the medical bay.

Law felt Akane beside him as he swooped into the room like a vulture, his black coat hanging on his lanky body like a looming shadow. The white medical room was hardest hit in the two medic's opinion. The medicine cabinets were hanging off its hinges, emptied off all its contents; this included Law's homemade concoctions and any experiments he was working on. His jaw clenched tightly as he saw his bedroom door was wide open.

Akane followed behind him carefully as he rushed into his quarters. When she stepped inside herself, she saw him hunched over a box. Upon closer examination, she realized it was the box with which she stored her parent's research notes and it was empty.

She clutched a hand to her heart as she sunk to her knees. Six years and all she had to show for it was an empty box. Akane couldn't help but let out a tiny whimper as tears began to slide down her face before she slammed her fists onto the steel floor.

Law didn't move to see his nurse since he could feel her frustration being entangled in the rage boiling inside of his stomach. He began to stalk out of the room, bending down and grabbing his nurse's hand on the way out, and pulling the two of them back up to the second floor where the remaining Heart Pirates waited.

They looked at their captain expectantly and saw his body was rigid and tense as he gripped Akane's wrist like it was an anchor to reality and he was about to be swallowed into the tempest. His face was obscured by his hat, but his mouth moved with the accuracy and speed of a machine gun.

"Jean, prepare the submarine for submersion. Shachi, reload and sharpen the weapons. Bepo, go outside to pick up their scent and check for foot prints. Raeni, prepare coffee. Penguin see if there's any emergency supplies hidden in the boiler room. And Akane, search the medical bay for any stray supplies."

They all hastily left to the upper floor to fulfill their duties, except for Law himself. He stood at the top of the third floor staircase, waiting for his anger to cool to simmer; he knew this was reckless and purely out of emotion, but he had to do this. He was not going to stand by and let these pirates rob him and his crew blind.

He reached into his pocket to feel the cube. The heart inside it beat steadily and calmly. Law pulled the blue cube out of his pocket, watching the red heart pulse for a while before he crushed it in his hand. The glass from the cube leapt into the air before disappearing while the heart sat in his hand, the blood dripping to the floor.


End file.
